Grant number: 620963

The CRISEUL Jean Monnet Network will investigate the crisis management mechanisms and alternatives which can render European Union (EU) responses more efective and legitimate, and thus, it aims to deepen the analysis of the political effects on democracy at the regional and domestic levels and broaden the research to the question of sustainability of growth and transition to low carbon economies. Secondly, the project will explore further the possibilities of international cooperation with other regions and in particular Latin America, to strengthen global level financial and social regulation, as well as to promote the protection and promotion of democracy, human rights and the environment, key EU values and to the success of its role in the world.

The network builds on the idea that Latin America and Europe can both learn from their respective experiences on crisis response and the distributive and democratic implications at national and regional levels, as well as from the role of regional hegemons, especially in times of political polarization and increasing nationalism. Democratic and distributive aspects of crisis responses (monetary, financial & economic policies and institutional reforms) are key to these trends but have not been adequately addressed in the literature. Furthermore, deepening a bi-regional dialogue in the field of social- and macroeconomic policies and crisis management, and democracy, including civil societies and inter-parliamentarian fora such as the Eurolat, would provide an additional strategic content to the Strategic Alliance the EU-CELAC Summits are supposed to build.

In all, the project aims to attain the following objectives: 1. research on EU crisis management, equity and democracy; 2. compare experiences in Latin America and EU, in terms of crisis management and distributive and democratic impacts of the crisis and the challenged of sustainable development; 3. comparatively analyze the impact of crisis when it comes to regional integration and regionalism; 4. create an EU-Latin America network for cultural exchange, scientific knowledge transfer and building, including through the joint publication of an open access scientific journal on regionalism; 5. involve students and young researchers in the research, teaching and exchanges among scholars and civil society; 6. collaborate with EU institutions and regional development banks, Brazilian and Latin American regional institutions, social movements and media, to engage their active participation in the events to be realized by the Network and establish an international consortium of global players on crisis response; 7. elaborate policy recommendations on financial, economic, social and political governance responding to contemporary challenges; 8. Increase the public awareness on regional and bi-regional issues contributing to create peer pressures for regional, bi-and trans-regional cooperation.