Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This article provides a summary of the latest trends and policy developments in the area of international public procurement, with a special focus on the recently adopted International Procurement Instrument by the European Union (EU). The EU public procurement market is one of the largest and most accessible in the world. However, many of the EU's major trading partners apply restrictive practices in their markets that discriminate against EU businesses. Faced with this asymmetry, the IPI allows the EU to advocate more effectively for open international public procurement markets.

The definition of strategic autonomy applied to the EU has its origins in the field of security and defense, although a clear and fully accepted definition has not been achieved. It involves various types of factors, which represent a set of opposite aspects that do not give rise to a univocal perspective on the subject. Instead of the very different positions of the EU countries, some relevant factors have triggered the development of such a concept: the supply chain shortcomings that have become obvious since the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the foreseeable impacts within the economic-industrial sphere. The impact that strategic autonomy, as defined here, may have on the European defense industrial and technological base and that of the different member countries, is still unknown, although some positions and results can be advanced.

The article aims to answer the question of whether initiatives such as the REPowerEU Plan will increase the relative autonomy of European energy policy. However, the emergency that underlies the launch of REPowerEU makes a considered analysis of this difficult. Thus, the article provides a historical overview of the context in which this plan is to be deployed. The conclusion reached is ambivalent. This plan could be a significant step forward in Europe's energy policy, but it could also reinforce its subordination in the global energy order.

This article exploits highly disaggregated trade data and detects 204 EU product dependencies in sensitive industrial ecosystems and points of particular fragility that may be induced by some of them. Its methodology supports the early detection of bottlenecks in value chains and supports the quantitative dimension of the EU's open strategic autonomy agenda.

This article analyses the challenge of reindustrialisation for EU countries, highlighting its requirements and implications. It also explains the reasons why a process of reshoring of firm motivated by the increase in environmental, health or geopolitical risks cannot be expected to contribute to this end. As a consequence, emphasis is placed in the new and important role that must be given to industrial policy, within a framework of strengthening the resources and capacities of Public Administrations and intense public-private cooperation. Its main objectives are also identified and those key areas that demand greater ambition and definition are examined.

European trade policy is evolving towards a new paradigm: Open Strategic Autonomy. This article presents and analyses the new European trade policy instruments that constitute this new strategy and offers a taxonomy to classify and understand them. Taken together, these instruments have the potential to change the way Europe commercially engages with the rest of the world.

José Antonio Martínez Serrano

The interaction between central bank digital currencies and cryptocurrencies is examined, using a game-theoretic model that allows the various equilibria to be delineated in terms of the probability of regulatory success. The conditioning role of financial intermediaries is also examined. The analysis suggests a multiplicity of equilibria, the concrete realization of which depends on the regulatory capacity and the interaction between the central bank and financial intermediaries. Furthermore, the information problems faced by the central bank can generate asymmetries and unstable situations that are difficult to resolve.

The article proposes a possible simple methodology for assessing the potential benefit of trade agreements from the perspective of geopolitical risk reduction through the geographic diversification of trade flows, focusing on trade agreements with Mercosur, Chile and Mexico.

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