On October 26, 2021, an EU IDEA closed-door seminar gathered together academic experts on international relations and regionalism to discuss the main findings of the policy document “Differentiation in ASEAN, ECOWAS and MERCOSUR: A Comparative Analysis”, in which various modes of differentiation in regions outside of Europe were analysed.

The session, which was held online and organised by CIDOB, was introduced by Pol Morillas, CIDOB’s Director, and moderated by Anna Ayuso, co-author of the paper and Senior Researcher at CIDOB. The intervention began with the presentation of the paper by its co-authors: Bart Gaens, Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Bernardo Venturi, Associate Fellow at the Istituto Affari Internazionli and Anna Ayuso. The three experts presented the case studies of ASEAN, ECOWAS and MERCOSUR and the main conclusions of the comparative analysis. The session continued with an open discussion with the audience, including the remarks of Jean Grugel, Professor at the University of York and Director of the Interdisciplinary Global Development Centre, Gian Luca Gardini, Chair Holder at the University of Udine, Frank Mattheis, Research Fellow at the United Nations University and Andrea Bianculli, Assistant Professor at the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals.