The compatibility of the Euro-Mediterranean regional integration with the multilateral rules (original) (raw)

Multilateral or Regional Agreement: The Case of Mediterranean Non-EU Countries

2006 Annual Meeting, August …, 2006

Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries are at a crossroad regarding potential trade reforms. The EU is not only the world s largest market for the region s agricultural products, but also remains the prime outlet for these Mediterranean countries exports. An applied ...

Euro Mediterranean Integration and Cooperation: Prospects and Challenges

UN Economic …, 2009

Europe and the Mediterranean countries are bound by history, geography and culture. At the crossroads of the European, African and Asian continents, the Mediterranean region 48 presents political and economic challenges that have recently relaunched the debate on Euro-Mediterranean integration and cooperation. The 26 littoral States share geographical features and a past that has been shaped by some of the greatest civilisations of the world. Despite such elements of unity, the Mare Nostrum has remained divided along two main fractures: "north-south" and "east-west". Global interdependence has not yet reached all Mediterranean States. While the northern shore enjoys strengthened political and economic integration, deep divisions characterize the relations of southern states. Democratic and rich, the north contrasts with the poverty and political turmoil of the south. The southern region is also plagued by a lack of infrastructure, a poorly-educated workforce and high unemployment. International and internal migration, terrorism, money laundering, organized crime, environmental degradation and human trafficking are but a few of the problems of the region. These impediments to the region's security and economic growth can neither be confronted independently nor be viewed in isolation from one another. Regional political cooperation failures have been attributed to non-convergent national interests, conflict in the Middle East and various geopolitical factors. Sector-based cooperation and integration, however, provides an opportunity to strengthen the economic governance of the entire region. 47 Katia Adamo is the former Special Assistant to the Secretary-General of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM); Paolo Garonna is Deputy Executive Secretary of UNECE. The paper has been written on the basis of Mr. Garonna' s presentation on "Economic Prospects and Challenges for Euro-Mediterranean Economic Cooperation" held in his capacity as representative of UNECE, as special guest and key speaker, at the meeting of the PAM Standing Committee for Economic, Social and Environmental Cooperation in Malta, 13-14 March 2008. 48 Hereafter, when referring to the Mediterranean or to the Mediterranean region, we are referring to the 26 littoral States or territories: Albania,

Survival of the Fittest: The First Five Years of Euro-Mediterranean Economic Relations

2004

The EU's development strategy towards its Southern near abroad resembles the development economic Leitmotiv of the early Nineties, i.e. the Washington Consensus with its three pillars of macroeconomic stabilisation, structural adjustment and liberalisation. Beyond that, however, it rests on the modernisation theoretical basis paradigm developed by Seymour Martin Lipset in 1959. In accordance with the optimistic convergence hypothesis, both the European Commission and the Council of Ministers assume that economic development correlates positively with the creation of democratic structures in the Third Countries of the Mediterranean (TCM). In other words, economic liberalisation, as a prerequisite for both the introduction of Euro Mediterranean Free Trade and the expansion of the Euro-Mediterranean trade exchange, should lead to increasing prosperity as well as to the formation and the widening of middle class actors. These should, in turn, due to their newly acquired participation rights in the economic area, almost inevitably demand further participation in the political realm. Ideally, this would be followed by a political liberalisation process that encompasses the whole Southern Mediterranean area and that will result in a democratisation of all the TCM. Based on this assumption and the concept of incomplete contracting, this study aims to show two interrelated insights: 1.) that the main goal of the Barcelona Process, i.e. to contribute to the socioeconomic development in the TCM, has not been achieved during its first five years; 2.) that the envisaged modernisation theory-inspired spill-over from the economic to the political level was severely hampered. It will be shown that the Euro-Mediterranean trade nexus, which appears as the primary tool for the realisation of the EMP's above mentioned objective, has been adjusted to the needs of EU-European market providers while the asymmetrical structure of Euro-Mediterranean trade-which was already visible during the approche globale and the subsequent 'Renovated Mediterranean Policy'-as been further aggravated to the disadvantage of the TCM. The paper concludes with some remarks related to the linkage between the structure of Euro-Mediterranean trade relations and the explanatory power of modernisation theory.

(2009) Report on the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. Status and Progress 2009

"This report was produced as part of the IEMed Survey of Experts and Actors on the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. Its main aim is to take stock of the developments and initiatives undertaken in the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership since 2005, including the multilateral track of the European Neighbourhood Policy and the more recent Union for the Mediterranean, and provide the reader with a reference guide for the content of the Partnership. The diversity of the Euro-Mediterranean process is such that this review of Euro- Mediterranean activities and projects is certainly not exhaustive, but at least all major initiatives and developments are put together in a single report, so that it can be useful as a “primer for beginners” material. As the IEMed Survey of Experts and Actors on the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership shows clearly, many of the programmes and instruments of the Partnership, in particular the most recent and innovative ones, for instance in the framework of the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument, are largely unknown even for experts in this area, so the report can be useful as a kind of quick reference thesaurus on the Euro- Mewditerranean Partnership for actors and experts."