Panel by the AURELA team brings discussions on autonomy in Europe and Latin America to the AFPS Congress in Lyon

The 18th annual congress of the French Political Science Association (AFSP) took place from June 30 to July 2 and gathered several researchers from the AURELA project in the city of Lyon. Proposed by AURELA coordinators Kevin Parthenay (Université de Tours) and Rafael Mesquita (UFPE), the thematic session “Strategic Autonomy and Multilateral Reconfigurations: EU–Latin America Relations” was held over two sessions during the AFSP congress. It brought together members of the AURELA project and researchers from other institutions to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing EU–Latin America relations. The thematic session had 9 presentations, which explored how both regions are responding to profound transformations in the international order, with a focus on AURELA’s three research areas: climate change and sustainable development, security and emerging technologies, and fundamental rights and democratic values.

The first day of the thematic session  began with a conceptual note by Rafael Mesquita (UFPE) and Kevin Parthenay (Université de Tours), who discussed AURELA’s overarching framework for defining and operationalizing “autonomy” in comparative research. The rest of the meeting was dedicated to Climate and Energy and brought together researchers examining the evolving role of energy and climate governance in EU–Latin America relations. Ana Paula Tostes (UERJ) opened the session with a paper co-authored with Yasmin Renne (University of Lisbon) which analyzes how recent geopolitical developments have renewed European interest in Latin America after years of stagnation in interregional relations, highlighting the strategic importance of energy cooperation and the growing influence of China in the region. An external participant, Pablo Barnier (Sciences Po/CREDA), discussed strategic autonomy through the lens of the energy transition and extraction of critical minerals, while Carlos Milani (UERJ) reflected on the current limits of multilateral climate negotiations in light of the experience of COP30 in Belém. Together, the presentations illustrated how environmental governance and energy transitions have become central dimensions of strategic autonomy and interregional cooperation.

The second day focused on Security, and on Democracy and Fundamental Rights. Samuel Faure (IRSEM) opened the session by examining the evolution of the concept of European Strategic Autonomy in both academic and political debates, arguing that its conceptual ambiguity has contributed to its political relevance while revealing important avenues for future research. The external participants David Cadier (IRSEM) and Douglas de Quadros Rocha (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3) explored, respectively, the evolution of European strategic autonomy in the context of the war in Ukraine, and the contrasting French and Brazilian perspectives on nuclear governance and strategic autonomy. Pablo Braga (UERJ) examined how transnational far-right coalitions promote an anti-gender agenda through multilateral channels.

The exchanges highlighted both convergences and differences in European and Latin American perspectives on strategic autonomy, reinforcing the importance of sustained academic dialogue between the two regions. For the AURELA project, the AFSP congress also marked an important milestone as its first scientific event bringing together several members of the consortium to discuss the substance of their research and engage with external scholars. While previous project activities had primarily focused on working missions and institutional meetings, the thematic session provided the first opportunity for a broader collective exchange on AURELA's core research agenda.

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