Regional integration, the structural funds and institutional stability in Mercosur: the creation of FOCEM
Authors
Gustavo Rosolen Tessari
UNESP – Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho”. Pesquisador do Centro de Estudos de Cultura Contemporânea. São Paulo – SP – Brasil. 05002-070
This article analyzes the creation and implementation of the Fund for Structural Convergence of Mercosur (FOCEM) in the political and institutional context of the block and foreign policy strategies of its partners. It seeks to demonstrate that, beyond its stated goal of promoting social cohesion and structural convergence between Member States, the fund was established as an instrument to avoid the discontent of the smaller economies with the results of integration and thus contribute to the strategy of the larger members, based on maintaining stability without promoting the deepening of Mercosur’s institutional apparatus.
