Regionalism, the European Union and the Arab Awakening

Eighteen years ago, the European Commission introduced a policy which sought to treat the European continent and the Mediterranean basin as a region – the Barcelona Process, or, to give it its formal title, the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP). According to the Barcelona Declaration, which introduced the initiative, the policy was designed to create a zone of ‘peace, stability and prosperity’ in the Mediterranean basin. ¹ In other words, the policy sought to create shared economic and political security between two worlds – Europe and the Mediterranean littoral of the Arab-Islamic world – which, historically, had been characterised by mutual hostility. In formulating its regional objectives in such terms, the Commission’s new policy was an example of regionalism; the creation of a shared narrative of political, social and economic engagement between geographically contiguous states. It was, moreover, an example of ‘open regionalism’ in that the shared narrative did not impinge directly on the sovereign integrity of the participating states. ²