ABSTRACT
In the early 1990s, the European Union (EU) and its member governments decided to make a new appraisal of their approach to the Mediterranean region and to reform their relations with the Mediterranean countries. It seemed to them that their past programmes and policies were inappropriate for dealing with the economic and political problems of the post-Cold War era. 1 In June 1994, the European Council, meeting in Corfu, gave a mandate to the Council and the Commission to reshape the EU’s Mediterranean policy. The Council considered the possibility of convening a conference that would bring together the EU and the Mediterranean countries. In October 1994, the European Commission suggested that the existing bilateral agreements of past policies should be included within a comprehensive and multidimensional framework. This later became known as the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP).
