EURECA - The European Union’s Outermost Regions and their Sovereign Neighbours
The project EURECA (The European Union’s Outermost Regions in the Caribbean and their Sovereign Neighbours – Between Regional Integration and External Alignments) responds to special needs.
It will discuss EU policies and real politics in this region. A closer look on the curricula of most MA programmes in EU Studies clearly demonstrates that the EU’s outermost regions are not considered in a sufficient manner. The long-time partnership of the applicant with the Universities of the Antilles and the Azores allows building up this project with two outermost regions of the EU. The Caribbean region will serve as a target research topic, the Azores as a reference point. All partners most of whom are Jean Monnet professors collaborate since many years with the applicant and the MA Programme “Roads to Democracy(ies)” (U Siegen). The interdisciplinary MA programmes in the fields of European Studies and International Relations at the Universities of the Antilles, the Azores, Bologna-Forli and Piraeus will be included in this project. More than 400 MA students will benefit from the results and deliverables gained in EURECA. Interdisciplinary local teams (history, political science, sociology, law, economics) will be established and allow cross-fertilisation.
The topic is a very crucial one. In June 2015 the second EU – CELAC (Community of Latin America and the Caribbean) Summit on “Shaping our common future” in the framework of a strategic partnership will take place in Brussels. The CELAC, founded in 2010 as a region-wide political organisation acts as a key player for cooperation and political dialogue. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) founded in 1973 aims at single market and economy and has concluded an economic partnership treaty with the EU. What about the outermost regions of the EU in the Caribbean (e.g. Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Martin) and their relations to their neighbouring countries? Only Sint Maarten as a constituent country of the Netherlands acts as an observer in CARICOM. The role and the importance of the EU’s outermost regions are defined in Article 349 (TFEU) and special support is guaranteed. The EU’s outermost regions in the Caribbean live in a special relationship with their regional Caribbean neighbours, with their Latin American neighbours, with Europe and the global players like the U.S.A. and China. Are they capable to develop their own identity (e.g. growing influence of Creole language and culture)? Is this development supported by EU policies?