ABSTRACT
From the outset, the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) addressed the issue of
co-operation in cultural, social and (otherwise) human affairs under its so-called
third ‘basket’. However, during the first years of the EMP’s existence, the third
basket largely remained in the shadow of Euro-Mediterranean co-operation, for
which there are three main reasons. First, while the whole idea of Euro-
Mediterranean co-operation in the framework of the EMP was, inter alia, meant ‘to
prevent the emergence of a cultural rift’ (Fahmy, 1997: 78), the relationship between
the overall EMP project and its third basket remained undefined. Second, the three-
basket structure of the EMP clearly separates between ‘high politics’ and economics
on the one hand (dealt with in the first and second basket respectively), and
‘low politics’, constituting cultural and social affairs, on the other. Indeed, while
government officials remained the key figures of Euro-Mediterranean co-operation
within the first and the second baskets, the third was mainly left to civil society
organizations and non-state actors. Third, and herewith related, very different areas
of co-operation, which could not be accommodated within the ‘political and security
partnership’ or within the realm of economics, were somewhat ‘thrown’ into the
third basket. Thus, diverse issues such as human rights, health, sustainable
development, environment protection, migration, youth, media, and inter-cultural
dialogue were grouped within the EMP’s third basket (Barcelona Declaration,
1995). In the best case, the issues dealt with under the third basket are disconnected
from each other, thus considerably reducing the possibility of creating synergies. In
the worst case, they may contradict each other. The objectives of promoting respect
for cultural and religious diversity and of supporting universal principles of human
rights – such as equality and women’s rights for this matter – are a case in point.
