Reviewing the normative power Europe: the Janus face of the EU in Central America

The European Union (EU) is traditionally presented as an exporter of standards, promoting and spreading its regional integration model beyond its borders. Central America offers an emblematic case where the EU has historically developed close relations and strong cooperation. In this article, we question the idea that the EU has exported its model to Central America from a detailed examination of the type of standards disseminated. Moreover, this questioning raises a central question: what has the EU really disseminated and what have been the effects of this diffusion? This article also contributes to revisiting one of the characteristic features of this global actor, the EU, through a political sociology approach to interregionalism analyzing European external action vis-à-vis Central America and more specifically the Central American Integration System (SICA).