ABSTRACT
The launch of free trade negotiations between the European Union (EU) and the United States in June 2013 will further modify traditional patterns of relations defined in the 1990s by Europe’s vision of a world integrated by regional blocs, one of them being Latin America and the Caribbean. Global shifts have always been a main driver for EU-Latin American and Caribbean (EU-LAC) relations. The interregional approach may be still valid for EU-Central American and EU-Caribbean cooperation, but bilateralism has become the dominant trend in relations with Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru and, probably, Ecuador. The severe economic and social crisis in Europe and the upgrading of Latin America as a middle-and high-income region reduced Asymmetries and Imposed the Need for a New Type of relationship beyond the traditional North-South focus of development assistance. Trade and development assistance have been the two dominant instrument of the EU policy towards the region and the principal tool to design multilateral strategy beyond member-state interests.
