Study On EU Mediterranean Policy

The Mediterranean region has become the “southern backyard” for theEuropean Community to prevent the strategic outflank of the former Soviet Uniongroup since the Cold War time. After the end of the Cold War, the strategic demandsof Europe towards the Mediterranean region has changed, however, this regionbecame more important to European countries because of its important geographicposition and its abundant energy resources. In order to strengthen EU’s linkage withthe Mediterranean countries, EU launched Barcelona Process to enhance regionalcooperation and promote the political and economic reforms of the southernMediterranean countries through favorable incentives. Along with EU’s enlargement,EU’s Mediterranean policy has been encompassed into the framework of EuropeanNeighbourhood Policy. For the sake of reversing the marginalized position inNeighbourhood Policy of the Mediterranean countries and balancing the conflict of“expanding eastward” or “down south”, EU launched the new framework of theUnion for the Mediterranean to remedy the flaws of the Barcelona Process.In recent years, the outbreak of the European debt crisis severely weakenedEU’s capability and aspiration of supporting the Mediterranean countries. Theregional upheaval brought by Arab Spring also broke EU’s ultimate goal ofmaintaining the stability of the southern Mediterranean region. To coping with thenew situation, EU revised its original policy to support the political democraticreforms. However, take EU’s severe internal divergences and the separate concerns ofmember states, we still cannot find an optimistic prospect of the revised EuropeanMediterranean policy.