The Construction of the EuroMediterranean Security System: prospects and pitfalls of the institutionalisation process of EuroMediterranean relations

ABSTRACT: Since the 1990s the European Union (EU) has been strengthening its role of international actor by making use of Partnership and Co-operation Agreements and Common Strategies as key instruments of its external relations. This ‘partnership approach’ considers political, economic, democratic and human issues as part of comprehensive projects of regional co-operation. With the EuroMediterranean Partnership (EMP) launched in Barcelona in 1995 and the Common Strategy for the Mediterranean adopted in June 2000 the EU has reinforced its links with the Mediterranean through a structured framework of co-operation to construct (in the long-run) a new security regime through Partnership Building Measures (PBMs). Both exogenous and endogenous factors have favoured the creation of this new framework for Euro-Mediterranean relations. The regional integration patterns which are evolving in other areas of the world are affecting the Mediterranean area as well, though at a slow speed. Th...