This is the first comprehensive analysis of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), launched in 2008 amid great controversy within the European Union. Affected from the start by negative fallout from the failure of Middle East peace initiatives, its inadequacies have been underlined by the popular movement for regime change in the Arab world. Leading experts provide here the first integrated analysis of the significance and shortcomings of the UfM. Beginning with critical questioning of the motives and institutional logics informing this venture, the collection proceeds to analyse its key actors, as well as major policy dossiers such as energy and development. The book explains how and why an initiative aiming to depoliticize Euro-Mediterranean relations in fact proved wide open to political discord, bringing huge disruption to UfM activity. While some aspects are found to have merit, the volume is critical of the way in which EU Mediterranean policy became driven by a narrow range of national interests, lost sight of the political objectives of the preceding Barcelona Process and became overwhelmingly bilateral in approach, at the expense of more ambitious region-building efforts. It concludes by highlighting the need to reform the EU Mediterranean policy framework in the light of the Arab uprisings of 2011. This book was published as a special issue of Mediterranean Politics.

Regional Integration in the Union for the Mediterranean: Progress Report monitors major trends and evolutions of integration in the Euro-Mediterranean region. The Report examines five domains of regional integration, namely trade integration, financial integration, infrastructure integration, movement of people, as well as research and higher education.

The focus of this book is on the fifteen-member European Union but its coverage extends to many other bodies which form part of today's Europe, such as the Council of Europe, the European Economic Area and Western European Union.

This is the first comprehensive analysis of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), launched in 2008 amid great controversy within the European Union. Affected from the start by negative fallout from the failure of Middle East peace initiatives, its inadequacies have been underlined by the popular movement for regime change in the Arab world. Leading experts provide here the first integrated analysis of the significance and shortcomings of the UfM. Beginning with critical questioning of the motives and institutional logics informing this venture, the collection proceeds to analyse its key actors, as well as major policy dossiers such as energy and development. The book explains how and why an initiative aiming to depoliticize Euro-Mediterranean relations in fact proved wide open to political discord, bringing huge disruption to UfM activity. While some aspects are found to have merit, the volume is critical of the way in which EU Mediterranean policy became driven by a narrow range of national interests, lost sight of the political objectives of the preceding Barcelona Process and became overwhelmingly bilateral in approach, at the expense of more ambitious region-building efforts. It concludes by highlighting the need to reform the EU Mediterranean policy framework in the light of the Arab uprisings of 2011. This book was published as a special issue of Mediterranean Politics.

The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) has had a troubled infancy. French ideas for enhanced Euro-Mediterranean co-operation, influenced by functionalism, actually brought increased disputation among the partners during its first two years. There has been deep disagreement over whether European Union (EU) Mediterranean policy should be based on common positions or accommodate French leadership ambitions. Adverse external conditions have affected the prospects of the infant UfM, but so too have intra-EU differences and problematical institutional structures.

The tension between the aim of creating sustainable multilateral region-building dynamics and the need to find more differentiated and flexible forms of cooperation has been ever-present in Euro-Mediterranean relations. The proliferation of different and partially overlapping initiatives in recent years – the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Union for the Mediterranean – is a plain expression of this tension. The 2011 episodes of regime-change in the Arab world have once again placed the debate about differentiation in EU’s relations with Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Countries at the top of the Union’s foreign policy agenda. This book contributes to theoretical and practical debates on whether differentiation processes can aid or hinder policy convergence processes and region-building efforts more widely. The contributions to this collection assess the actual significance and consequences of differentiation in Euro-Mediterranean relations through sector-specific in-depth analyses, covering issue areas as varied as environmental policy, migration, foreign and defence policy, trade, energy, civil protection and democracy promotion. The particular angle and comprehensive analysis of this book will make it of great interest for both scholars and policy makers alike in a moment when Euro-Mediterranean are in need of a thorough rethink. This book was based on a special issue of Mediterranean Politics.

With the creation of the Mediterranean partnership and the recent move towards the creation of the Union for the Mediterranean in 2008, a new emphasis is placed on the Mediterranean in the study of European Integration. This book brings together a collection of experts to address this important new area of study and discuss issues such as development, aid, labour, markets, human capital investment, Europeanization and institutional reform.