H��S�N�A~�}����p��=_bEKcl*[���@� �M�����դ�&�2��wF The fifth is how to avoid a technocrat-led process and promote instead the democratization of decision-making in all areas of the economy. 237 0 obj <> endobj * The world has seen the emergence of many special economic zones lately. 1. The mechanisms to achieve this need careful attention. The Challenges of Regional Integration for Development in Africa: Problems and Prospects. When the peoples are in effective control of the balance of powers different countries will participate in different ways in regional cooperation, taking exceptions as they see fit and forming sub-units of tighter cooperation as they see fit. 9. The main lesson of the past winter is that neo-liberalism was always only a radical fashion, a tip of the iceberg. + The second is common languages: Spanish and Portuguese are closely related. V ��B ���҄������{�'�9{�5����m}������Fl�!�y����X���i��کCJ^cE�k���+,i�e���J?_P���sڨ��֫1���ȓi�>R�0��CLj��Z�� -Ub\���=�j�.F4w���a��BB371���ȍAM]ǀ&�Яd)��,A\ׂ�����h�2�5r ].F�ѡDQLC���h�@a�\��ϢU}����T�4~�7�Փ�o�>t��:sТ��hV,_������6�������?�����~�����;�N܏{F�-�3`�|. Let me close on a more positive note with some recommendations drawn from the European experience: * Regional integration needs to be built democratically. 8. In: Elhiraika A.B., Mukungu A.C.K., Nyoike W. (eds) Regional Integration and Policy Challenges in Africa. But it seems to me as an outside observer that the experience of more than 500 years of colonialism and imperialism serves as a source of solidarity between the peoples in Latin America. In societies atomised socially and empoverished culturally by late capitalism and consumerism nation state are often seen as competitors. However, some of the more prominent ones have either not moved beyond a primitive stage, as in the case of SAARC in South Asia, or have been based on neoliberal principles, like ASEAN in Southeast Asia. of the integration process, and the current challenges. However, his work dealt neither on how cultural identity will be achieved nor its challenges as regional goals. 0000004645 00000 n integration is that the great ma jority of Regional Integration Arrangements (RIAs) involve n eighboring countries (hence the term “regional”). %%EOF Peace-politics cannot imply thoughtless pacifism. The G-192 that met in June 2009 for a UN General Assembly on the financial crisis and its impact on development also needs strengthening. The creation of a common internal market and of common external economic policies, especially as regards trade, has been a priority in European integration. 2. Thomas Wallgren Challenges of regional integration Posted by admin | Jul 26, 2009 | Alternative Regionalisms , Deglobalisation , Philippines , Trade and Investment By Akbayan Representative Walden Bello* (Speech at the Conference on “Regional Integration: an Opportunity Presented by the Crisis,” Universidad de Deportes, Asuncion, Paraguay, July 21-22, 2009.) It has been seen, first, as a peace project and, secondly, increasingly in later years, as a project for benign, political governance of corporate driven globalisation. Market fundamentalism will not come back easily as an economic orthodoxy. y�8D�������W�v 5���$l/��tA�biK�. Regional trade arrangements also played a role. In actual fact different European countries have different between them quite different kinds of membership in the EU both politically and juridically. Los puntos que el Paraguay plantea. But the nature of global integration is changing, entailing new challenges for policymaking. 2. George W. Bush goes down in the books as the greatest socialiser of banks and enterprises in world history. �N6� �7�ޏ���V��� �h$� L ��p�`:y��HF��!�琧[l�>Y�)Hr�|hM4���ne0Rjd�'�cƕ�2`F�F&ҩ��` The EAC seems to be the most vibrant Regional Economic Community (REC) in the Southern hemisphere and is tremendously advancing in its integration process: however, crucial issues remains to … Even quite conservative new models for measuring overall success in development, such as the so called Happy Planet Index, indicate that life-conditions in the US, Sweden, Germany and other similar countries reached an all-time high in th 1970s and haved steadily deteriorated since then. Deepening economic interdependence between nations and regions, the increasing importance of a globalised capital market and the increasing size and power of transnational corporations have overburdened the steering and regulating capacity of nation states. In decolonising development, art iculating new visions of good life (buen vivir) and building radical democracy the movements South America are today a great source of energy and hope for people on all continents. In the global arenas, at WTO, the World Bank or even in the climate negotiations positive news are yet to come. One: the fundamental principle of democracy, that all state power and all power of regional authorities belongs to the people, must always be recognized formally. 0000007621 00000 n This should not be seen as a problem. 3. In practice, referenda about that powers to hold at the national level and what powers to confer to regional authorities are essential. 0000047083 00000 n xref Globalization has ended in massive failure. The Bretton Woods institutions and the WTO-framwork have been insufficient or even dysfunctional for development, ecological responsibility and economic stability, especially for the global South. Regional Integration and Challenges of Africa’s Development 7 V. Regional Economic Communities - The Capacity Challenges 8 VI. The regional arena is too often considered to be only complementary to nation states and global institutional arrangements and global governance. I only want to add that not only are the different areas of crisis interconnected and systemic. The second is how to ensure that building complementarity among economies does not reproduce the old, unequal division of labor between stronger and weaker economies. The legitimacy and need for non-state political cooperation is obvious and  in regional cooperation as well tax-payers money and other public resources should not be exclusively spent on state and market driven integration. for intra-regional trade. *Walden Bello is a member of the House of Representatives of the Republic of the Philippines, president of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, and senior analyst at the Bangkok-based institute Focus on the Global South. 0000002594 00000 n 0000000856 00000 n Los ejemplos de Panamá y Bolivia. “Neoliberalism died in 2008-2009. They are important, but should not make us overlook the relevance of the local and regional levels. Since the early 1950s the emergence of, first the European Economic Community, EEC, and later, its sequel, the European Union, has been the dynamic centre of European  integration. In India the elections were won by a centre right still pursuing growth through exports, international competitiveness, intensified exploitation of domestic natural resources and deepened integration into global markets. Regional cooperation in the South can provide protection from dysfunctional and failing global institutions. Challenges of Regional Integration in the East Africa Community. He is affiliated with the Brussels based organisation Corporate Europe Observatory, chair of the Finnish Refugee Council and co-chair of Alternative to the EU – Finland. Focus of Trade Policy Development Capacity Building 10 VII. Donors and Institutions Supporting Regional Cooperation and Protecting the rule of law in post-Soviet states: the relevance of European and Eurasian integration Because of systemic constraints in the so called leading nations we cannot wait for the Obamas and even Lulas of the world to show the way for the deep changes we need. COMESA and SADC face several challenges in pursuing open regionalism (in the form of a commitment to nondiscriminatory tariff liberalization). I wish to bring out some lessons for regional integration from the fifty years of building the European Union: (1) Peace ambitions may undermine democracy: Many of us in these countries still work to preserve and take further the Nordic tradition. The author claims no ownership of his ideas nor originality for his views. The European Union has been seen by many as a much needed instrument for improved global governance of the economy at first, and now increasingly also of climate change, migration etc. 5. In 1991, the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) was launched with the aim of fostering regional integration among its four original members—Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The lesson for other regions is again negative. * If we manage to correct the imbalances mentioned the European Union shows that cultural and social solidarity between peoples with a long negative record of wars is possible and can be promoted through regional cooperation. Chapter III examines the external challenges facing the region today, particularly as regards its trade relations with Europe, the United States, Canada and Latin America. Regional Cooperation and Integration Capacity 13 VIII. (3) Regional cooperation for global governance needs to be built democratically from below. The most interesting efforts at integration, in the view of many, are those taking place in Latin America, among them Trade Treaty of the Peoples and ALBA or the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas to which eight countries now belong. 0000003422 00000 n One response to this crisis has been to dump export-oriented industrialization and reemphasize the primacy of the national market in sustaining economic growth. The evolution of constitutionalism in the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe: some lessons for the post-Soviet space. The repeated side-stepping of the outcome of national referenda on EU-issues, such as the French and Dutch rejection of the EU constitution  and the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty is rapidly leading Europe to a very serious and deep crisis in democratic legitimacy and participation. ;n�I�\N��#K�?NzaLR��_�*)��,���7 ��1t�=�L1yx��u���)�� ��� As a result, African governments have concluded a very large number of regional integration arrangements, several of which have The main ideas are familiar to all by now. new IT, nano-technology and genetic engineering make 21st century questions of war and peace more intractable than before. For this, effective, almost excessive formal veto powers by smaller members states in the regional organisations are needed to counter the effective and lasting, greater political weight of larger members. It remains open, however, what the implications are for the politics of global governance and the role of regional and national politics. My second point today is that regional politics needs to be recognised more than before as a relevant arena of political initiative in its own right. La soberanía hidroeléctrica paraguaya y los tratados de Itaipú, Yacyretá y MERCOSUR. level integration. For this and other reasons the primacy of economic policy instruments is a deep-seated feature of European integration. For instance, it appears to me that it can be advantageous to build relatively more on existing sub-regional organizations than has been done in the European context where Benelux, Nordic and other sub-regional cooperation structures have been eroded by European institutions when a better policy could have been to sustain and strengthen them as parts of a multilayered regional cooperation structure. Amortización de la deuda de Itaipú. People’s Agenda for Alternative Regionalisms, * Presentation given at International Conference of governments and social movements “Regional Integration: an opportunity to face the crises” (21 and 22 July 2009, stuff Asunción del Paraguay). endstream endobj 244 0 obj <>stream The dark side of this idea was that EU integration has worked top-down. I do not want to under underestimate the cultural diversity of the Americas. Journal of Social Sciences: Vol. And the OAU had some successes and challenges, but the exigencies necessitated a shift in the paradigms undergirding the integration effort. Risks and Challenges, (ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly's Committee on Political Affairs on the issue of 'Lessons to be learnt from the European model of regional integration for the ACP countries', ACP House, Brussels, 13 September 2007). 0000002697 00000 n In order to curb excess corporate influence strong measures must be taken at all times. – All references are given for purposes of identification and transparency only. Sumario 7. 4. Pérdidas por la no integración eléctrica. Acta de Foz de Yguazu. The Challenges of Regional Integration in Africa and Policy Options A Summary of Conclusions and Policy Issues for Discussion @inproceedings{2008TheCO, title={The Challenges of Regional Integration in Africa and Policy Options A Summary of Conclusions and Policy Issues for … It may be helpful in this regard to think of the global North in a new way: not as the developed regions that have made it, but as regions suffering from serious development failures. + The fourth is the mere fact that Latin Ametican efforts towards regional integration can learn from the European experience, positively and negatively. From the perspective of radical and comprehensive democracy building from below and strengthening the disempowered is essential in all responses to the crisis. 14. For many of us from outside Latin America, the dynamics of ALBA hold particular interest. The regional cooperation we are looking for must protect and build upon people-to-people solidarity and conviviality. He carries sole responsibility for the views expressed and all shortcomings of his remarks. It is clear that people, states and corporations in Europe and America must be pressed to responsibility and that we must pay for the mess we have caused during five hundred years through exploitation of other continents and mother earth. Four: the political logic of democratic regionalism by the people and for the people should be pluralistic and decentred. ��Ő<8gГ�#G98�T�;�T�l�a�U��9��1����#'&g@'�ڒ���3��Y��h��d��Ȓ�����py����xX����;���B�l�ۂwٳ��o+�GYXS55� I�w��"4fZ��;˿-�C΄ڒ�W�3/�wot��� I suggest that a maximum size of corporations is considered as well as sealings on individual ownership and control of corporate activity. 10. Regional cooperation in the global South and between increasingly self-reliant but co-operating Southern regional blocs can be essential for gaining economic, political and cultural autonomy from Europe and the US, serving global solidarity and environmental responsibility. * The European experience shows that regional cooperation can be effective in enhancing the power and  economic and social status of oppressed minorities and underprivileged regions. 0000000016 00000 n All in all, it is clear by now that radical shifts in power structures, economic distribution or national or international policies are not easily within reach. Developed and developing countries have embraced regional integration because of its perceived benefits in increasing trade and enhancing sustainable growth (Mansfield and Milner 1997; Milner and Kubota 2005).However, the proliferation of regional integration, especially in the developing world, has … Magang believes one of the challenges restricting integration is the economic imbalance within Africa’s trade blocs. 0000042727 00000 n Control y trasparencia. European and Eurasian integration initiatives: constitutional challenges. Globally the political debates seem to be moving from a discussion of separate crises to a discussion of inter-connected crises: of the finance sector, the world economy, political governance, food, water, development and climate. The global record seems to be that industrial growth economies are not capable of overcoming poverty and deprivation everywhere. The new politics of global security that we need, must, as Gandhi and others have clearly seen long back, be linked to the construction of pro-people and environmentally sound development models. Financial regulation remains weak, tax havens still work as usual and even the Tobin tax awaits its implementation. Regional integration has a final non-economic disadvantage. For this reason pro-people regional cooperation should systematically promote cultures and economies of sustainability and peace. 0000002383 00000 n March 3-4, 2016. For regional integration in Africa to be a success, Africa’s leaders will have to move beyond grand gestures and abstract visions. 0 0000006829 00000 n The people have been seen as prone to aggressive sentiment. 1. In Bolivia there seems to be encouraging experiments along this line that could serve as a model for further work. European integration has gained popular support and political legitimacy from two great promises. GLOBAL AND HISTORICAL PREMISES OF REGIONAL COOPERATION, Regional integration in the context of collapsing neo-liberalism, authoritarian capitalism and the search for cultural alternatives. The challenges of regional integration in Southern Africa Mark Chingono* and Steve Nakana University of Zimbabwe, P. O. trailer In recent years the increasingly lively alliances throughout the region of indigenous and other emancipatory movements, that has given one country a president coming from the indigenous movements and another country a constitution that recognises Mother Earth is of particular interest for people on all continents who are searching for new political tools, ideas and visions. One item that fascinates us is the use of barter as a key method of trade, for instance, the exchange of Venezuelan oil for Bolivian soybeans or of Venezuelan oil for medical services rendered by Cuban volunteers. This, it may be argued, is the new logic of Western, imperial military hegemony. Economic integration has intentionally been built as a device that will promote political and other integration later, behind the backs of the reluctant citizens. Even under the condition of functional interdependence globally of the competing blocs, climate change, development failures and resource depletion combined with nuclear proliferation and the evolution of new military technologies may easily lead to completely new types of wars with planetary consequences. +  The political weight and influence of large corporations tends to be relatively greater on regional than on national and local levels of political decision-making. In recent years the democratic deficit in Europe has become obvious to all. So far so good. Accepted 12 September, 2008 Regional integration is increasingly being accepted as essential in facilitating economic and political development. A. 4. The European Union has a series of languages that it deems to be the official languages of the EU government. The challenges confronting us today cannot be met by either neoliberalism or the old developmentalist model. + The third is common interest. If other regions follow the EU model and see regional integration of foreign policy, security policy and trade policy as an instrument for selfish and hegemonic ambitions the ensuing world order may easily end up repeating the calamities of what we in Europe call the westphalian order of competing, sovereign nation states, at a new, higher level. 0000004149 00000 n Nevertheless, as we have seen during the past months the demise of neo-liberalism does not mean the end of capitalism nor does it automatically change the balance of power or fundamental policies. Drawing on analysis and inspiration coming from the 18th century German enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant and others, the idea has been to promote peace through functional integration of the national economies in the region. * Regional, elected parliaments can play an important role in a new regionalism. Obama brings the US back on a more Keynesian track and into multilateral cooperation, but his victory was more due to the catastrophic results of Bush’s politics than of a desire for fundamental redirection of US power. 0000002164 00000 n 0000004040 00000 n The global trend in the last years and months is not that neo-liberal capitalism is replaced by socialism, a new green politics or even social liberalism but, unfortunately, by authoritarian capitalism. 0000036889 00000 n That is not unexpected since the region comprises an array of historically developed Two: It is imperative that the juridical hierarchy, including the effective control of constitutional rights and freedoms of people and nature, is never subordinated to economic policies or juridical agreements regulating the economy. The lesson to be learnt is that regional cooperation must, much more than has been the case in Europe, be built democratically, with explicit consent and support by the citizens. Finally the paper identifies the prospects for integration in West Africa. Also internally in Europe social rights achievements have some times been undermined by the economic logic of integration. Corpus ID: 130801062. Coalition for comprehensive democracy, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam in Finland. Together the cooperating regions may make historic contributions to a post-colonial and post-imperial, pluricentric and peaceful world order. It is important for us all that this political and cultural resurgence is placed at the centre of regional integration here. Civil society must not only provide a check to both the state and the market, but it must be the leading force in the new economics. In fact, what we witness on all continents is a colossal lack of political and cultural creativity in the state and corporate sector. They should all be seen as symptoms of an underlying cultural crisis; a crisis of development models and the fundamental aspirations and ideals of modernization. It is true in a limited sense. Regional integration has accompanied global economic liberalisation efforts. 2. Both ideas are now in a crisis. They need to include very tight transparency regulation and, as I believe, innovative, radical anti-trust regulation. 6. In building regionalism for a new internationalism it is essential that we go beyond the current logic of competetive identity politics. 0000008757 00000 n The challenges of regional integration in Southern Africa @article{Chingono2009TheCO, title={The challenges of regional integration in Southern Africa}, author={Mark Chingono and Steve Nakana}, journal={African Journal of Political Science and International Relations}, year={2009}, volume={3}, pages={396-408} } Because of the post-war technocratic logic of EU-integration the democratic crisis in Europe is also very deep-seated. This article looks at the global and regional integration of the Indian Ocean economy, with a view to identifying challenges to greater integration. 11. Again, I do not want to overstate the case, but it appears to me that all countries in Latin Ameica could gain in economic and cultural terns from deepened cooperation between them and also with other Southern regions, even if it has to happen at the cost of laxer links to Europe and North America. *�c�z��L=�]�3BYjnXJc���L,�^I}>���“���yZ�����$3Csa�*�`�?v�K&~i�3� %��s�y��;���twN\T�ߌ�s��bK'�Ʌ�v�2��N��D���~�*KrMm�6�8|��#�b�F���Ƶ��x��c�C aJʼ����Sbu8��o��ȡzh�����G��� u��0������x���AV��ز� ��l�?�,f0��6P��&�2��,�_��m�Z�Z�H��1��T0��2��d�q}O��Z�Z�V��Ճ�,�-�^ϔݳq��%`�`$@�Uk��h�f���d �A�u���T���\V����!�����n@JW�,^���x�տ~��.�~jH��a� It is extremely dangerous for democracy, ecology and social justice to make economic cooperation the heart of regional integration. Situación de la integración eléctrica en América del Sur. Cogestión paritaria. Simultaneously deregulation, privatisation and trade liberalisation are all on a hold or they are rolled back. Box MP167 Mount Pleasant Harare, Zimbabwe. Recent key developments, such as the text and ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty, the formation of Europe’s new global economic policy, and the struggles over the working time, services and chemical legislation at the European level, show that corporate interests and narrowly defined economic goals still tend to dominate EU-policies. regional integration” had attempted to work out the importance of cultural homogeneity with respect to regional integration. The opposite politics of regional integration which allows mobility only internally and is closed to the outer world, with exceptions allowed only for selfish reasons or on market premises is a false and dangerous model. r50/82648/2015 a research project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for award of masters of arts degree in international studies october 2016 More focused and gradual steps that are carefully executed at the domestic level may be the best place to start. 5. of Africa’s development. I propose these as some of the key questions to guide our discussion of regional integration over the next two days. Political, cultural and moral initiative that will inspire hope on all continents can and needs to come from many places. Regional cooperation in the South should not only protect the weak. 1. In the golden age of the Nordic model, the small North European area that I come from, had disproportionate global significance in pro-people politics. 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Democratizing effects on the long-term internally in Europe has become obvious to all focused and gradual steps that are in... Elected member of the challenges restricting integration is seen as equally natural parts the.