The European Union and Latin America : normative encounters

The current doctoral research looks at how norm entrepreneur and norm interpreter interact, highlighting the limitations of previous research in recognising the agency of the norm interpreter and the complex interactions between the two actors. Normative encounters is coined as a central concept for understanding how the EU as norm entrepreneur creates normative dialogues with its interlocutors, in this case Latin American regional organisations. Two dynamics are proposed to show how normative encounters happen or are prevented from doing so. On one side, an analysis is made of cases in which the norm entrepreneur attempts to diffuse its norms to the norm interpreter that localises the norms which are then incorporated (or not) in concrete policies through policy entrepreneurship. On the other side, an equally important dynamic starts with the norm interpreter that creates new norms though norm subsidiarity, diffuses this new normative content and creates a need for the initial norm entrepreneur to adapt its normative approach and to make it visible to the norm interpreter through concrete policies. By using concepts from both International Relations and public policy studies, the thesis questions and updates the way of looking at the European Union as a normative actor. It also explores the link between norms and policies by analysing the European Union cooperation for development strategies and programmes, as well as the negotiation of Association Agreements with three regional groups in Latin America: Central America, Mercosur and the Andean Community. Thus, the study opens a space of analysis in which norm entrepreneurship is part of both the EU desire to diffuse its norms and of its need to adapt to a new international context. In this way, norm entrepreneurship becomes also a reaction to norm subsidiarity and makes it imperative for the European Union to use new norms if it is to keep its normative identity. We are witnessing a shift from a world in which the EU diffuses norms to other actors and regions, to a world in which the EU norms are perceived, interpreted and sometimes challenged, sometimes rejected and replaced by new ones