Professor Eduardo Cuenca García has been recently appointed honorary citizen of New Orleans for his ten-year works in touch with the university community of this US city. His research group, called European Union, has studied in depth the different stages Spain has gone through to join the EU: from the first adaptation years to the most recent stage, in which the European directives are directly applicable to Spain.
His works are is part of the department of Applied Economics of the UGR. From a macro-economical perspective, Cuenca has analysed the foreign relations of the countries of the European Union with other big international regions. Last year he published a book in which described an exhaustive analysis of the different agreements with Latin America. In this study, he highlighted the speeding-up of the contacts between the EU and the Latin American countries coinciding with the prominence of Spain in the European scene from the nineties. Besides high-level institutional relations, the professor from Granada highlights in his book the agreements reached with MERCOSUR or Mexico.
On the other hand, the Agreement with the Mediterranean Countries was analysed by economist Mar Holgado in her doctoral thesis. This section of the foreign relations of the EU benefits especially those regions, like Andalusia, which have special contacts with the area of Maghreb in essential questions such as fishing. Holgado prepared a list with the main exporting Andalusian companies which work in this Mediterranean free-trade area. Carmen Llorca’s research work went deeply into the relations of the EU with the so-called ACP countries (America, Caribbean and Pacific). “The case of Cuba is important because, although it has not been included in this agreement, its special relations with Spain have leaded us to pay it preferential attention in our study”, points out Cuenca García.
The impact of European policies on Andalusia is another research line of this group of Granada. Particularly, the most important sector of our economy, agriculture, has been benefiting from the entry of Spain in the EU of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), with allowances for markets like olive oil. In addition, community allowances and the so-called European funds have had one of their main priorities in our Autonomous Region.
Among the future projects, Cuenca points out two wide action frameworks. On the one hand, the consequences of the enlargement to the Eastern countries, which will materialize at the beginning of next year. Andalusia will be directly affected as two big agricultural potencies are joining, Poland and Hungary. On the other hand, these Applied Economics researchers are interested in settling the future of the euro, “with cases like that of the United Kingdom, which has postponed again its inclusion in the single currency, Sweden’s referendum and the convergence criteria new members must fulfil to start using the euro”, points out Cuenca.
Further information: Prof Eduardo Cuenca García.
Dpt of Applied Economics. Phone number: 958-243716.
E-mail: ecuenca@.ugr.es
