The integration process in Latin America and the government agenda in the Southern Cone common market

Abstract

This article analyzes the incidence of the topics of the governmental agendas of the countries that make up the Common Market of the South in the design of the subregional space. To do this, it begins by examining the recent momentum of the integration process in Latin America and the impact that the Bush Initiative for the Americas and the Ibero-American Summit have had on it. The impulse of these two stimuli and the progress of the process have not led to the issue of integration occupying a hierarchical rank in the larger MERCOSUR partners. The analysis of the government agendas indicates that there are issues that constitute the ceilings to this stage of the integration process. The insufficiencies of the Treaty of Asunción are explained, in this perspective, by the need to preserve the functional sovereignty of the States Parties.