The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership is the main framework for
political, economic, and social relations, as well as dialogue and regional
co-operation, in the Mediterranean. It is, moreover, the only forum
bringing together all of the actors in the region. This partnership, also
called the Barcelona Process, includes 38 members: the 25 European Union Member
States, three candidates for EU membership, and ten other countries known as
Mediterranean Partners. The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership is an open,
inclusive space, which has created a climate of trust in the region. The
active participation of Israel and the Palestinian Authority attests to its
integrating capacity.
The first Foreign Ministers Conference, held in Barcelona in 1995, was the
starting point for this association between the European Union and countries
from the Mediterranean region. Over these past ten years, the
Euro-Mediterranean Partnership has achieved many of its objectives.
Politically, it has promoted dialogue and co-operation for the sake of greater
stability and security in the Mediterranean region. Economically, the
European Union’s co-operative efforts have involved a budget of nearly 9.000
million euros for MEDA co-operation programmes, and a similar
amount in European Investment Bank loans, for supporting the private sector and
for a variety of projects, including water infrastructure in Jordan, and
regional desertification control, amongst many others.
Important steps have also been taken towards meeting the goal of creating a Euro-Mediterranean
Free Trade Area (EMFTA) by 2010. The Euro-Mediterranean
Association Agreements between the EU and nearly all of the countries on the
southern coast have made possible major advances in trade liberalisation,
increasing the volume of commercial exchange in the region.
The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership has also promoted the creation of venues for
deliberation, such as the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly,
which periodically brings together 240 legislators from both shores. The
launching of the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue
between Cultures, inaugurated in 2005 in Alexandria, marked a
great step forward in the development of cultural exchange in the Mediterranean
through the active participation of different civil society organisations.