European Union-Brazil Relations: A Strategic Partnership in Suspended Animation by Laura C. Ferreira-Pereira

After a period of evolution from promises to practice towards the implementation of a strategic partnership established in 2007, EU-Brazil relations have entered into a phase of suspended animation. This tendency started to take shape after the 8th EU-Brazil Summit held in 2014 and became more pronounced with the advent of testing times for the EU and Brazil, gaining expression in more or less simultaneous crises. This chapter traces and critically assesses the turbulent course of EU-Brazil relations and the factors that have led to the stagnation of cooperation since 2014, and its particular implications in the context of the EU’s endeavours to build a stronger international presence in a post-Brexit globalised world. A key contribution of the argument is its focus on the impact of political change within one of the EU’s key strategic partners on the capacity or inclination of the EU to further the partnership. The chapter concludes that the state of limbo characterising EU-Brazil relations in recent years is at odds with the EU’s need to reinforce its strategic partnership policy to address global governance issues and common challenges in an increasingly complex and contested world.