Integração sul-americana em xeque: o Mercosul como síntese regional de resistência à crise dos multilateralismos

Abstract

This academic work aims to verify the institutional functionality of the Mercosur social space in the application of its rules. It is based on the fact that South America, especially after the 1990s, faces measures of economic austerity, which endanger the integrity of social rights in the region. Besides, there is a tendency in the world to question multilateral schemes for international cooperation, which includes regional integration processes, such as Mercosur. In this sense, the work sought to compare the regulatory frameworks of the Mercosur States Parties, with the objective of verifying any points of imbalance to the legislative harmony sought by the bloc. In addition, it attempted to identify possible violations of the Mercosur Social Declaration and the respective constitutive Treaty, which enforces measures from the bodies that make up its social dimension. It was observed that, since 2017, with the implementation of Labor Reform in Brazil and the diplomas that followed it, that such State violated a series of provisions that are part of the Mercosur legal order. In light of this conclusion, it was found that Mercosur, at least from the point of view of its rules, is unable to make the social rights recognized in the Sociolaboral Declaration effective. As a proposition, two complementary solutions were identified for the impasse: the institutional strengthening of Mercosur and the increase of participatory democracy in the bloc.