ABSTRACT
Contemporary Euro-Mediterranean relations have advanced through successive phases of development. In a first phase from 1995, the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership promised a comprehensive and equally balanced framework for cooperation between the European Union, Arab states and Israel. In a second phase, the rise of terrorist concerns after 2001 intensified tensions between security and reform objectives. The Arab spring heralded a third phase of apparent optimism and stronger prospects for deeper and more values-based partnership across the Mediterranean. A fourth phase has now commenced, dominated by more geo-political factors; the fate of this still half-formed phase remains uncertain. The series of apparent turning points through which Euro-Mediterranean relations have passed leave a profound but unsettling analytical legacy that questions several core assumptions about EU foreign policy.
