Sistema de solución de controversias en materia de inversiones en los tratados negociados por la Unión Europea con México y el Mercosur (2019/2020). Un estudio comparativo

The aim of this paper is to determine, on the basis of a limited sample, the legal regime applicable to the dispute settlement system on investments in the future, in the framework of the relationships between the European Union and Latin America, and its possible development, as well as whether or not this progression could be homogeneous in the region. To this end, it has been undertaken a comparative study of two agreements negotiated, but not yet in force, between countries of different sub-regions of Latin America, specifically those reached with Mexico and the MERCOSUR. Although the latter is part of an integration process, due to its internal tensions and stagnation in its development, it has become mainly an international negotiating platform for its member countries vis-a-vis third parties, which makes it of greater interest as an object of study, given that the national interests of each of them acquire greater relevance than common interests in the development of such negotiations and the agreements reached. The differences in the external relations built up over the last thirty years by Mexico on the one hand and MERCOSUR on the other, the capacity for political and economic adaptation of the states involved in view of a changing global scenario caused by crises of different natures, both internally and externally, are conditioning factors for the agreements that may be concluded in the area of investment, even with the flexibility in negotiations that characterizes the European Union’s policy in this respect.