The European Union crisis analyzed from a neofunctionalist perspective: Lessons for regional integration in Latin America

Abstract

Until recently, the European model was an inevitable reference as a successful case for any other process of regional integration. The cu- rrent crisis in the European Union allows us to draw some useful les- sons for integration processes in Latin America, in particular from a neofunctionalist perspective and its intergovernmentalist critique. Among other things, this crisis teaches us that integration can easily find its limits and that the final goal of integration is not always clear. The automaticity of integrationist dynamics, the costs of institutional design problems, as well as the insufficient attention granted to the role of States in the process, could be reviewed in the light of developments in Europe. Theories of integration could be able to explain not only the progressive evolution of the process but also stagnation and crises, and even setbacks.