ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the current genesis of European Union (EU) Mediterranean policy, both in terms of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) initiative and its wider implications for the EU as a global actor. It considers what the development of the EMP tells us about the kind of strategic action that the EU produces. The chapter assesses how far the EMP has bridged the divide between pillar I - the Union's foreign economic policy - and pillar II - the Common Foreign and Security Policy. The pillarisation issue had only a peripheral effect on the actual functioning of the EMP. The chapter revisits the 'civilian power' concept which attracted renewed attention at the start of the 1990s as a potential role for the Union in the post-Cold War world. It employs Christopher Hill's seminal 'capabilities-expectations gap' thesis as an analytical tool to assess the extent to which the EMP has changed the EU's status as an international actor.
