Economic Cooperation Between the European Union and Brazil

The article is based on forecasts of international think tanks and on the studies made by foreign and Russian authors. The features of economic interaction between the European Union and Brazil are traced and characterized. Such issues as the “EU's ‒ Brazil“ strategic partnership, bilateral trade and investment cooperation, the importance of the climate agenda and the energy transition are examined. As well, the author tries to foresee possible development options for the cooperation between the EU and the South American Giant in the short and medium term. It was concluded that, in the new context of the world order, the European Union has to adapt to the strengthening position of the Global South in which Brazil will play the weighty role. The article shows that Brazil retains its role as a key link in European inter-regionalism and participates in three mechanisms of EU interaction with Latin America: interregional, subregional and bilateral. After a period of stagnation in strategic EU‒LAC partnership, in the third decade of the XXI century the European Union focused on Brazil as its main South American partner and intermediary on such issues as climate change and energy transition. The study aims to show, using the example of the EU and Brazil, the configuration of relations between the former and new centers of power in the modern context of the global world order, characteristics of which is uncertainty and increased competition in access to critical natural resources and technologies. The European Union, probably, will use the future ratification of the trade agreement with Mercosur as an element of pressure on Brazil to fulfill its environmental and climate obligations. Brazil, in turn, more likely, will focus on South-South cooperation without entering into confrontation with the EU, being interested in obtaining investments and advanced technologies.