ABSTRACT
The shores of the Mediterranean sea have been the place where several ancient populations developed and met each other, giving rise to profitable trade but also to long and cruel wars. Building an Islamic state is often a target in this part of the Mediterranean. In 2011 the extraordinary events of the so-called Arab Spring, a wave of social protests asking for democracy that took place in all the North-African and Middle-East Mediterranean countries, changed the political situation dramatically. This chapter analyses the road of cooperation walked by the European Economic Community (EEC) first and by the EU after, in their relationships with countries in the south-east of the Mediterranean sea from the 60s to the present. The EEC started very early in the 60s, just a few years after its institution through the Rome Treaty, establishing formal cooperative and commercial relationships with Arab Mediterranean countries.
