CIDOB takes part in the European debate on how to redefine the policies towards the Mediterranean

The think-tank community in Europe is currently engaged in the discussion on whether it is time for a substantive and exhaustive review of the EU policies towards both the Southern and the Eastern neighbourhood. CIDOB researchers, Eduard Soler i Lecha and Francis Ghilès, have recently been invited to take part in two influential fora in Brussels to debate how to adapt the EU policies towards the Mediterranean in the light of political changes in the regions. 

Eduard Soler was invited by Carnegie Europe to participate in a task force aimed at identifying the long-term prospects and challenges, defining EU strategic priorities and contributing to the debate with concrete recommendations. One of the main conclusions reached during this exercise, which consisted in a full-day round table on March 24, was that the EU has a limited capacity to shape regional dynamics but still has a significant role to play supporting state-building processes and sustainable economic reforms.

 In April Francis Ghilès participated in the forum Does Europe Matter? organised by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in a session entitled “The neighbourhood matters to the EU: re-thinking relations”. Ghilès argued that the Mediterranean should not be neglected and that if the EU were to ever attempt a common energy policy, particularly where gas is concerned, a more ambitious framework of relations with Libya and Algeria would be needed. One common conclusion of both debates was that supporting transition and reform in Tunisia should be a priority for the EU. Not only is the Tunisian government open to receiving this support, but this is also one of the few cases in which the EU still has the means of making a difference. The success of the Tunisian transition could also have positive spillover effects for the whole region.