ABSTRACT
The aim behind the Barcelona, Spain, agreements signed in November 1995 was to bring the countries on the southern and eastern borders of the Mediterranean into line with northern Europe, and thus create a zone of shared prosperity in the Mediterranean basin. Eleven years later it seems clear that this objective is likely to become a dead letter. The promised financial investments and complementary technological aid still stagnate at around 1 percent of total EU world investment, revealing the low attraction of the Arab region. With a few exceptions, Arab growth has been at a virtual stop since the middle of the 1980s. The result is that, in spite of numerous resources, including important financial ones, the hopes for catch-up and revenue convergence between the two sides of the Mediterranean expressed in the Barcelona project are now postponed.
