Mercocities

Mercocities is a network of cities created in 1995 in the context of the Mercosur regional integration process. Mercosur is the common market established by Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay in the Treaty of Asuncion, signed in 1991. Bolivia, Chile and only recently, Peru and Venezuela , have joined countries that subsequently became members. 

Mercocities purpose is to favour the involvement of municipalities in the regional integration process, to foster the setting of an institutional environment for cities within MERCOSUR and to develop horizontal exchange and cooperation among municipalities in the region.

Since Mercocities was set up, the network has expanded and included new members. It currently has 199 member cities from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, Peru  and Venezuela with a population of approximately 100 million.

Specific and relevant topics for inter municipal integration are developed in 14 Thematic Units under a decentralized coordination run by the coordinating cities of each Unit. These thematic units are responsible for the systematisation −within their scope− of the management experiences lived and of the articulation of common policies that, in turn, will be suggested in the context of Mercosur.