O que me proponho neste trabalho é discutir o tema da livre circulação dos trabalhadores no Mercosul, levando-se em conta que esta liberdade - diferentemente de outras que aparecem como objetivos essenciais a serem alcançados no processo de integração desta sub-região - não faz parte do texto do Tratado de Assunção, assinado em março de 1991. Esta ausência é reveladora, na medida em que a liberdade de circulação de pessoas constitui um dos elementos que evidencia com maior clareza a existência de um processo de integração, na medida em que afeta diretamente a vida dos cidadãos assegurando seu livre trânsito dentro do bloco e oportunidades iguais entre os nacionais e não nacionais. No texto do referido Tratado, a integração aparece limitada à circulação de capitais, bens e serviços, liberdade assegurada pela eliminação de qualquer medida que possa prejudicá-la. Partindo dessa discussão, pretendo examinar quais os avanços institucionais já alcançados no sentido da criação de políticas que, concretamente, conduzam à abertura de fronteiras entre os países do Mercosul por meio das quais seus cidadãos - neste caso, os trabalhadores - possam se deslocar livremente e residir em seu local de trabalho. Para tanto, acredito que conhecer a experiência da União Europeia possa ser de grande utilidade.

My proposal for this article is to discuss the free mobility of workers inside the Mercosul block, bearing in mind that this liberty, in the contrary of others issues that arise as essential aims to be reached in the integration process of the region, wasn't incorporated in the Assunção Treaty, signed in march 1991. This absence is revealing in the sense that the liberty of circulation of persons is one of the elements that show with more evidence the existence of an integration process as it affects directly the life of its citizens ensuring their free displacement inside the region and equal opportunities among nationals and no nationals. In the text of the above-mentioned Treaty, integration appears only in reference to the circulation of capital, goods and services, being this liberty safeguarded by the elimination of any obstacle which could damage this road. Enlarging this discussion, I intend to look up what institutional advances has been reached in the course of the process, in the sense of the inclusion of measures which lead to the opening of the borders of Mercosul countries through which its citizens - in our case, the workers - could move with liberty and could live in the place where they work. To discuss this point, I believe that the knowledge of European experience is of great utility.

O novo Tratado da União, o Tratado Reformador ou Tratado de Lisboa, aprovado na Cúpula Européia de Chefes de Estado e de Governo em outubro de 2007 durante a presidência de Portugal, abre um período de profunda reflexão sobre as razões que levaram a França e a Holanda a dizer "não" ao Tratado Constitucional apresentado à população em 2005 e sobre o novo rumo a ser tomado. Neste artigo, proponho-me a reconstituir o debate político-institucional que cercou esses dois momentos, debate profundamente influenciado pela incorporação ao espaço territorial da União Européia de 130 milhões de novos habitantes de diferentes procedências e identidades, o que certamente vai produzir um impacto crescente na distribuição de recursos políticos e econômicos e na percepção das diferentes identidades entre seus cidadãos. Tanto o debate normativo quanto o da diversidade cultural serão examinados à luz das principais teorias que cercam os estudos sobre a União Européia.

The European Lisbon Treaty, approved by the European Council in October 2007 during the Portuguese presidency, opened a period of profound discussions about the reasons that led France and the Netherlands to reject in referenda the Constitutional Treaty presented to the population in 2005 as well about the new course that should be adopted in designing Union's new institutions. The present text summarizes the political-institutional debate that surrounded these two moments. This debate is affected by the incorporation of 130 million new European citizens from different origins and identities to the European Union territorial space, having a growing impact on political and economic resource distribution and on the perception of differences among the European population. Similarly to the normative debate, the cultural diversity will be examined in light of the main theories in the field of European studies.

In this article, I propose to examine the issue that at present most mobilizes the European states and public opinion within them: the modification of the institutional-political model, in the form of a Constitutional Treaty for Europe, requiring parliamentary or popular ratification by its twenty-five member States, within a period that remains undecided. Events surrounding the consultation proposed to the European governments and their citizens, indicate - particularly if we take into account the negative votes in France and Holland, and others that may yet occur - that the European Union is divided, raising the concern that its process of regional integration could suffer interruption or even reversal. My analysis of the reasons European citizens and European states find themselves divided, with emphasis on those that separate the bureaucracy in Brussels from the EU's citizens and national governments, will revolve on two basic axes: the enlargement of the EU, recently grown from fifteen states to twenty-five, and the transformation of the EU's political-institutional model, which in securing itself to a constitutional anchor modifies both symbolically and substantively the degrees of sovereignty and autonomy of Europe's numerous political actors. So doing, this analysis will seek support in theoretical currents that, stimulated by the importance and singularity of the process of European construction, have been brought to bear on the examination of the political instruments and procedures involved, their determinants, and their consequences. Beginning with the matter of enlargement, this article will look at the recurrent problems arising from admission of the ten new member countries from the Center and East of the continent - that is, the "other Europe" - formally incorporated in May 2004, and at the decisive weight this had in the decision to formulate a Constitution for Europe. Arriving thus at my second topic, I will reconstruct the debate between a "Europe-Union of States" and a "Super-State Europe," discussing issues directly connected to this classic dichotomy - democracy, legitimacy, formation of a collective identity, division of sovereignty, and others - which, having direct impact on European citizens, will determine the acceptance or rejection of what is being proposed to them in the Constitutional Treaty.

Abstract In this article, I propose to examine the issue that at present most mobilizes the European states and public opinion within them: the modification of the institutional-political model, in the form of a Constitutional Treaty for Europe, requiring parliamentary or popular ratification by its twenty-five member States, within a period that remains undecided. Events surrounding the consultation proposed to the European governments and their citizens, indicate – particularly if we take into account the negative votes in France and Holland, and others that may yet occur – that the European Union is divided, raising the concern that its process of regional integration could suffer interruption or even reversal. My analysis of the reasons European citizens and European states find themselves divided, with emphasis on those that separate the bureaucracy in Brussels from the EU's citizens and national governments, will revolve on two basic axes: the enlargement of the EU, recently grown from fifteen states to twenty-five, and the transformation of the EU's political-institutional model, which in securing itself to a constitutional anchor modifies both symbolically and substantively the degrees of sovereignty and autonomy of Europe's numerous political actors. So doing, this analysis will seek support in theoretical currents that, stimulated by the importance and singularity of the process of European construction, have been brought to bear on the examination of the political instruments and procedures involved, their determinants, and their consequences. Beginning with the matter of enlargement, this article will look at the recurrent problems arising from admission of the ten new member countries from the Center and East of the continent – that is, the “other Europe” – formally incorporated in May 2004, and at the decisive weight this had in the decision to formulate a Constitution for Europe. Arriving thus at my second topic, I will reconstruct the debate between a “Europe-Union of States” and a “Super-State Europe,” discussing issues directly connected to this classic dichotomy – democracy, legitimacy, formation of a collective identity, division of sovereignty, and others – which, having direct impact on European citizens, will determine the acceptance or rejection of what is being proposed to them in the Constitutional Treaty.

O artigo examina a presente situação do Mercosul levando em conta as principais dificuldades que obstaculizam sua consolidação e seu avanço. Para tanto, reconstitui os conflitos comerciais que separam os dois maiores países do bloco, Brasil e Argentina, em um contexto em que as recentes crises econômicas internas de seus Estados-membros e a fragilidade dos mecanismos institucionais comunitários intensificam os obstáculos para avançar no processo de integração. O ponto de partida da análise é que o Mercosul está em crise, o que gera diferentes posições por parte de seus agentes, entre os quais, de um lado, setores do empresariado brasileiro, que põem em questão a pertinência de se prosseguir em um caminho que julgam pouco funcional, e de outro, outros setores empresariais e, especialmente, alguns governos da região que defendem seu aprofundamento e ampliação. O artigo propõe-se a reconstituir esse debate que abre caminho para uma discussão sobre a estrutura institucional do Mercosul, dimensão que assegura a previsibilidade das suas ações e práticas e a possibilidade de sua realização, condição para o desenvolvimento do bloco e de seus Estados-membros.

This article analyses the present situation of Mercosul, considering the main difficulties that paralyses its consolidation and advancement. The approach will look into the conflicts that separate its two biggest countries, Brazil and Argentina, in a context where the recent economic domestic crisis of its member States and the fragility of its institutional structure deepen the challenges to get ahead with the integration process. The starting point of the analysis is that the Mercosul is in crisis, a perception that generates different positions among its agents. On one side, there are business sectors that question the viability to follow a road which in their opinion is close and, on the other side, business sectors and specially some governments of the region that defend its consolidation and enlargement. This article reconstructs that debate, which opens the discussion about the institutional structure of Mercosul that ensures the forecast of its actions and practices and about the possibility of its achievement, and so stearing the development of the region and its member States.

Dois temas básicos são discutidos e examinados neste trabalho: a incorporação de dez novos membros aos quadros da União Européia e a constitucionalização de sua estrutura jurídico-institucional. Para tanto, proponho-me, de um lado, a reconstituir os passos político-institucionais que cobrem o período que vai de uma Europa do pós-guerra, fragmentada e enfraquecida, a uma Europa pós-Guerra Fria, pronta para se estender a todo o continente, processo que se abre em maio de 2004 com a incorporação de dez Estados vindos do Leste Europeu; de outro, a reproduzir o debate institucional entre uma Europa federal e uma Europa de Estados, o qual levou a que, em junho de 2003, fosse apresentado ao Conselho Europeu reunido em Salônica o projeto do novo Tratado da União e, em dezembro de 2003, fosse discutido, na Cúpula de Chefes de Estado da UE, reunida em Bruxelas, o texto da primeira Constituição para a Europa.

Two basic themes are discussed and examined in this paper: the incorporation of ten new members into the European Union frame and the creation of institutional-legal structure supported by a Constitution. To do so, I propose, on one hand, to reconstitute the political-institutional steps which covered the period coming from post-war Europe, fragmented and weakened, to a post-Cold War Europe ready to spread throughout the continent. This process began in May 2004 with the incorporation of ten States of Eastern Europe. On the other hand, I intend to reproduce the institutional debate between a Federal Europe and a Europe of States, debate which conducted to the presentation to the European Council of the project of the new Treaty of the Union, which met in Salonika, in June 2003; second, to the discussion of the text of the first European Constitution, in the Summit of Heads of States of EU, held in Brussels, December 2003.

O objetivo é examinar o significado para os países latino-americanos em geral, e para o Brasil em particular, do projeto de formação da Alca proposto pelo governo norte-americano na Cúpula de Miami, em dezembro de 1994. Para tanto, faz-se uma reconstituição dos esquemas regionais de "nova geração" que emergiram no continente nos anos 90, tomando como foco de análise o Nafta, ante-sala do que possa vir a ser a Alca, e o Mercosul.

This article examines the significance for Brazil in particular and for Latin America in general of the FTAA agreement proposed by the United States government at the Miami Summit in December of 1994. To this end, the author reviews the various regional frameworks of the "new generation" that emerged throughout the continent in the 1990´s, taking as a starting point Nafta, which may provide a notion of what can be expected from the FTAA and Mercosul.