The new Middle East / Working Paper
Why the European Union needs a 'broader Middle East' policy
12/02/2010 By Edward Burke, Ana Echagüe, Richard Youngs
European foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is highly fragmented. While a plethora of initiatives towards Maghreb and Mashreq countries have been developed, these are not contained within an overarching EU strategy for the Middle East.
Many member states insist upon the Mediterranean's separation from other dimensions of Middle Eastern policy as a positive distinction of European foreign policy. However, important trends now render the divide between Europe's Mediterranean and Gulf policies increasingly incongruous.
This paper concludes that it makes little sense for the EU to work against the grain of trends that see Gulf states increasingly active in and interdependent with Mediterranean states in addition to the US making efforts to re-engage more positively with the Arab world.
 |
This Working Paper is supported by the European Commission under the Al-Jisr project and was presented by FRIDE at a conference organised by Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome on 11-12 December 2009.
Download the full version of this publication, available in English (215 kB)
Spanish (222 kB)
To read or listen to the comments of our experts in the media about this and other topics, please visit our Press section.
Keywords
Democracy promotion EU European Union Mediterranean Dialogue Middle East and North Africa USRelated publications
- Democracy and Security in the Middle East
- Europe, the US and Middle Eastern democracy
- Iraq and after: setting the scene for rethinking Europe's role in the Middle East
- The challenges of democratisation and political reform in the Middle East: between autocracy, islamism and liberalism
- The EU and the Middle East Peace Process: Re-engagement?
Bio author: Edward Burke
Political trends in the Persian Gulf region. Iraq. Yemen. Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia. Politics of energy in the Middle East.
Bio author: Ana Echagüe
Political reform in the Arab World. Yemen. Saudi Arabia. Democratisation. Gulf Cooperation Council.
Bio author: Richard Youngs
Democracy promotion. EU foreign policy.
