ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the reasons why Mediterranean security issues continue to pose a challenge for a more integrated and global vision of European security, and considers what this illustrates about western and European security thinking in general. The EU is in fact following in the footsteps of other institutions, including NATO, the Western European Union (WEU), the Organization of Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE), the North Atlantic Assembly (NAA) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which have all extended their 'outreach' to the Mediterranean since the early 1990s. The European consensus reached at Barcelona was that the root cause of instability in the Mediterranean derives from insufficient levels of economic growth and development. This view also coincides with the expressed security concerns of non-European Mediterranean states, especially in North Africa, where demographic growth has put most pressure on governments to create employment and improve the welfare of the population.
