The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership is the main
framework for political, economic, and social relations, as well as
dialogue and regional co-operation, in the Mediterranean. It is,
moreover, the only forum bringing together all of the actors in the
region. This partnership, also called the Barcelona Process,
includes 38 members: the 25 European Union Member States, three candidates
for EU membership, and ten other countries known as Mediterranean
Partners. The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership is an open, inclusive
space, which has created a climate of trust in the region. The
active participation of Israel and the Palestinian Authority attests to
its integrating capacity.
The first Foreign Ministers Conference, held in Barcelona in 1995, was
the starting point for this association between the European Union and
countries from the Mediterranean region. Over these past ten years,
the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership has achieved many of its
objectives. Politically, it has promoted dialogue and co-operation
for the sake of greater stability and security in the Mediterranean
region. Economically, the European Union’s co-operative efforts have
involved a budget of nearly 9.000 million euros for MEDA
co-operation programmes, and a similar amount in European Investment Bank
loans, for supporting the private sector and for a variety of projects,
including water infrastructure in Jordan, and regional desertification
control, amongst many others.
Important steps have also been taken towards meeting the goal of
creating a Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area (EMFTA) by
2010. The Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements between
the EU and nearly all of the countries on the southern coast have made
possible major advances in trade liberalisation, increasing the volume of
commercial exchange in the region.
The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership has also promoted the creation of
venues for deliberation, such as the Euro-Mediterranean
Parliamentary Assembly, which periodically brings together 240
legislators from both shores. The launching of the Anna Lindh
Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures,
inaugurated in 2005 in Alexandria, marked a great step forward in the
development of cultural exchange in the Mediterranean through the active
participation of different civil society organisations.