Section One:  the EU’s New Mediterranean Policy

Before the end of the Cold War, under the bipolar system between the US and the Soviet Union, the European Community (EC) member states regarded protection of themselves from being threatened by the former Soviet bloc as their strategic interests. In order to stop the Soviet bloc’s expansion within the southern Mediterranean region, and to form a strategic circle around the southern rim of Europe while ensuring the smooth transportation in the region’s important shipping channels and economic safety, the EC provided assistance and unilaterally opened industrial product markets for south Mediterranean nations. The intention was to establish a closer relation between both parties, retain the EC’s influence among those nations and restrain the overspreading trend of the former Soviet bloc.

1.     Forming of the EU’s New Mediterranean Policy and its causes

When the former Soviet bloc collapsed with the end of the Cold War and economic globalization has accelerated its pace, the EC (and the EU afterwards) member states have seen varied strategic interest structure in the south Mediterranean territory. First, security issues emerged again. Affected by the political surroundings in the Middle East and worldwide, together with long-term unsolved problems in these nations’ domestic economy and society, radical religious forces became the key anti-government political power and achieved rapid growth. In 1992, the radical Islamic force nearly controlled the country during Algeria’s general election. Since the September 11 attack in 2001, attacks conducted by that radical organization have raged in this region, therefore Europe has been menaced by unstable political factors in its southern neighborhoods and major energy source markets, even potentially threatened by hostile regimes. Second, immigration became an ongoing serious problem. Europe has been the target for immigrants from south Mediterranean nations for a long time. Since the 1980’s, those countries have generally witnessed tough economic conditions. Despite the economic situation became better after 1990’s, the growing rate could not meet the rapidly growing needs for employment, with all those nations seeing two-digit unemployment rates.[1] Immigration, including illegal immigration to the Europe has endured higher pressure. Third, the economic interests were at risk. The southern Mediterranean region has been an important trade and investment market for European countries for a long time. After 1991, the United States took advantage of the Persian Gulf War and the Middle East Peace Process to actively snatch larger market share in the markets of the Middle East and North Africa. When the Iraq War ended in 2003, the US kicked off the progress of signing free trade agreements with Middle East countries, which rendered challenges to European countries’ position in the south Mediterranean market.

In response to the above challenges of strategic sense, the EU made significant modification for its south Mediterranean policy soon after its establishment. The EU believed that the challenges were mainly related to the slow economic growth and unsound nomocracy in the nations of the region. As a result, the EU began to work out a New Mediterranean Policy since mid 1990’s, in the hope of that the south Mediterranean nations implement political and economic reforms and regulations according to the EU’s requirement, so as to drive their transition from planned economy to market economy, political democratization and legalization, environmental protection and harmonious growth of economy, as well as the process of regional economic cooperation.

2.     Interest consideration from both sides concerning the New Mediterranean Policy

The EU’s New Mediterranean Policy has received positive feedbacks from the south Mediterranean nations, whose economies have survived on beneficial funds from other countries for a long time. The EU’s assistance is particularly significant for the economy of the region. In terms of the export market, this region depends heavily on the EU markets, and their products mostly rely on the European nations’ unilateral preferential trade policies to maintain their market shares in the European market because their products lack competitive edges compared with similar products made in other regions of the world. With the end of the Cold War, the West and international organizations put forward more critical conditions for their aid. After the World Trade Organization (WTO) was founded, a new global trade system gradually came into being, making the south Mediterranean nations confronted with increasingly fiercer market competition. Therefore, the south Mediterranean countries considered the EU’s New Mediterranean Policy a good opportunity. To solve the issues related to the capital and the market, they are willing to adjust their economy and open up their market to the EU, in order to get EU’s assistance and market in return and finally enter “EMAs” negotiations with the EU.

For the EU, it also wants to trade its assistance for security and markets in the South Mediterranean nations. On this basis, the EU and the coastal countries along the Mediterranean held a meeting in Barcelona on November 27, 1995[2], with participation of foreign ministers from fifteen member states of the EU and twelve Mediterranean nations (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Morocco, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan, Malta, Cyprus and Tunisia, with Libya acquiring observer’s status since 1999). Its aim was to strengthen the political, economic, security and development collaborations between the EU and the Mediterranean nations. At the conference, the “full partnership” between the two sides was announced in the “Barcelona Declaration”, with an aim to enhance the stability and economic boom of the region and initiate the negotiation of “EMAs”. This partnership primarily consists of the following: to build a free trade zone step by step; to form closer economic cooperation and facilitate regional cooperation in all common fields on the most possibly broad foundation; to regularly undertake political dialogues and discussions among all sectors; to apply EU’s regulation concerning capital flow, competition and deregulation of service sector; and to increase cooperation in the fields of social, cultural and financial affairs.  Most importantly, democratic principles and respect for human rights was emphasized. To propel the implementation of the NMP, the EU has worked out a MEDA program to specially sustain this partnership. Aids from the program and loans provided by the European Investment Bank are two key pillars for the EU to implement its “New Mediterranean Policy”.

Since the “Barcelona Declaration” was signed in 1995, the EU has signed association agreements with Tunisia, Israel, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Malta, Cyprus and Turkey. To date, Malta and Cyprus have joined the EU while Turkey is still awaiting a membership. Only Syria has not officially signed the agreement but relevant talks are in progress. [3]

Section Two: The European Neighborhood Policy

With the upheaval of the East European nations and acceleration of economic globalization, the EU’s New Mediterranean Policy has undergone changes and was brought into the framework of the “European Neighborhood Policy” (ENP) put forward in the course of EU’s “Eastward Expansion”.

With its enlargement moving ahead, the EU fulfilled its fifth and the largest scope of expansion on May 1, 2004, and it was also the EU’s first expansion from the Western Europe to the Central and Eastern areas. After this expansion, the EU has 25 member states with population totaling 450 million.[4] The EU’s Eastward expansion represents a significant shift in world political structure after the Cold War. On the side of geopolitics, the expansion also allows transformation in its neighborhoods. Bordering the EU, countries in the Central and Eastern Europe could directly affect the “security” and “stability” of Western Europe once turbulence occurred from their economic and political reforms, intensifying trend of various potential conflicts among different nationalities, and even military collision and warfare outbreaks. They could also have impacts on the EU’s own development. Compared to the south Mediterranean nations, these neighbors even have more direct impact on EU’s security and growth. Accordingly, to guarantee its safety and development in the long term, the EU has “transplanted” its own law, system and policies in the Central and Eastern European countries by offering more assistances, in the hope of achieving a win-win result and establishing the EU model in those states.

On May 12, 2004, the European Commission released a “document of the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP)”, and its main contents consisted of the general principles and action plans for the 17 neighboring East and South European countries, including Russia, Ukraine, White Russia and Moldova from former Soviet Union, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the Caucasus Region and the participating countries of the “Barcelona Process”.

The ENP actually builds on EU’s “Barcelona Declaration” and emphasizes dialogues and cooperation with the neighbors. The policy specifies in-depth partnership in politics, security policy, economy and culture with the neighbors, as well as the conditions for providing possible financial supports. The conditions for financial support includes implementing legal systems, respecting human rights and the rights of ethnic groups, following market economy, improving relations with the neighborhood, and fighting terrorism and cross-border crimes. It is also linked to the process of mutual cooperation. According to the ENP, a free trade zone will be set up to ensure the free circulation of business, personnel, services, materials and capital within the nations of this zone; migration policies of different countries should be unified; security defense and cooperation across the zone will be strengthened; crisis containing capabilities will be extended; talks on human rights, cultural cooperation and mutual understanding shall be improved; collaboration in the fields of transportation, energy, telecom, scientific research will be reinforced; investment partnership will be enhanced. The EU has approved about 1 billion US dollars for the implementation of the ENP in the 2004~2006, mainly for anti-terrorism, anti-crime efforts, conflict prevention, economic and social development, etc.[5]

In 2007, the European Commission approved the establishment of European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI), a new fund for the implementation of the ENP. Participating states in the policy are entitled to use ENPI. The EU has also set separate action plans with the partner states, in order to monitor every country involved to proceed as the agreement.

It is noticeable that the EU adopts different policies towards its neighbors within the large framework of the ENP. The ENP has no plan for all neighbors to join the EU, and the south Mediterranean nations are good examples. For these countries, the EU’s policy is to reconstruct them through aids and enhance their bilateral relations and cooperation in terms of security and stability. For the countries that want to become member states, the EU demands that they should completely accept its system. The different expectations may lead to differences in the EU’s attention and levels of its assistance. So, after the ENP document was officially issued in 2004, the south Mediterranean nations showed certain concerns about being edged out of the new cooperative frame of the ENP and decided to take initiatives to enhance their partnership with the EU. In November 2005, the EU and the south Mediterranean nations met again on the tenth anniversary of the “Barcelona Process”. With a theme of “re-opening the Barcelona Process”, the two parties held the EU-Mediterranean summit and decided to enhance the implementation of the EMAs’ and set up the EU-Mediterranean free trade zone by 2010, realizing peace, safety, stability and prosperity in the region. During the summit, the participants discussed a lot of issues such as governance and democracy, economic reform, education, regional security, anti-terrorism and control of illegal immigrants, and finally worked out a Five-year action plan. For the governance, a mechanism is encouraged so as to urge relevant nations’ democratic transformation. For the economic reform and trade system, all countries are expected to initiate the agricultural and trade negotiations in the service sector and make efforts to construct the “EU-Mediterranean free trade zone” by 2010. For the education, the countries on the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea are expected to fulfill the task of carrying out compulsory education in primary schools and halving illiteracy rate by 2010. For the regional security and anti-terrorist activities, the summit finally agreed on a “Conduct Code on Anti-Terrorism” and all participating countries promised that they will fight against all forms of terrorism, implement the UNSC’s anti-terrorism resolution, and respect Charter of the United Nations and the International Law.

Section Three: The EU exports its Model

The EU’s New Mediterranean Policy and the European Neighborhood Policy have the following common features: Based on the need of EU’s strategic interests; launching a wide range of transformation in many countries under the help of the EU; in the light of the models adopted by the EU and European nations.

Supported by the EU, the south Mediterranean nations have selected the development path of the EU. The MEDA program also supports the integration of regional economy in south Mediterranean nations. Since the program was put into effect in 1995, it has funded many regional integration projects such as the “Agadir Agreement for the Establishment of a Free Trade Zone” signed by Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, the Europe-Maghreb electric power market integration project and other regional economic integration projects on large infrastructure construction. By implementing the MEDA program, the EU also encourages communications among young volunteers by funding the “Europe-Mediterranean Youth Program”, promotes partnership in jurisdiction, narcotics prevention, organized crime prohibition, anti-terrorism and migration projects.[6]

The EU requires aid receivers to undertake domestic policy reforms by signing the “Euro-Mediterranean Association agreements (EMAs)”. Furthermore, besides signing new EMAs with the south Mediterranean nations, the EU has taken numerous concrete measures to interfere with these countries’ reforms. For example, the EU adopted a “pairing” approach to carry out reform in the south Mediterranean nations. The south Mediterranean nations must sign the “pairing” agreement with the EU member states so that the branch-to-branch guidance on the reform could be carried through. So far, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Jordan have used the pairing method and signed ten pairing protocols covering trade, taxation, medical care and sanitary standards, anti-money laundering (AML), migration, competition and land ownership, etc. In addition, 38 agreements are prepared for signing. Another example is the fact that the EU obviously increases its support to so-called “humanity partners” to speed up these nations’ reform in human rights, governance and rule of law.  In 2005, the EU offered special funds for the “national human rights and democratic schemes” in countries like Morocco and Jordan. It also provided special aids to the “modern plan of judicial system” in Tunisia, the “development program for a civil society” in Egypt and the “reform and local governing project” in Lebanon.[7]

Let’s quote the case of Tunisia. In the “action plans” for implementing the EU-Mediterranean association agreement and the ENP, the EU puts out a lot of requirements for the reforms in Tunisia. Concerning political reform, Tunisia is required to adopt the EU’s political concepts, ensure democracy and nomocracy, strengthen transparency of governmental administration, guarantee the independent role of judicial system, improve judicial efficiency, better conditions in jail, respect human rights and protect the rights of women and children, and so on. In terms of regional security, the country is asked to take an active part in political and security talks with the EU and other fields such as conflict prevention, crisis management and anti-terrorism. Tunisia is asked to sign the “charter of the Euro-Mediterranean peace and stability”. In the economic and social areas, Tunisia is demanded to maintain prudent financial policies, continue its structural adjustment and develop market economy, solve the unemployment issue, reduce interregional imbalance, acquire sustainable development according to EU’s criteria, and combine environmental protection with industrial, energy, transportation, agricultural and other policies. For the trade reform, the nation is forced to ensure free trading practices between the EU and all Mediterranean partners, simplify the trading procedure, reduce import tariffs, improve food security and health standard in light of EU’s criteria, accelerate farm product trading with the EU and give more incentives to foreign investment. From 1995 to 2005, the EU provided Tunisia 757 million euros for fulfilling the above mentioned requirements. At the same time, the EIB offered 1.962 billion euros to the country. The EU has repeatedly evaluated Tunisia’s reform progress and published assessment reports on several occasions, because all assistances were linked to the results of the reform projects. Tunisia has since signed several “pairing” agreements with relevant departments of the EU member states.[8]

   Section Four:  Achievements and problems for the New

     Mediterranean Policy in the south Mediterranean nations

Twelve years has passed since the EU’s NMP was officially put into effect in 1995. What impacts the NMP has on the political and economic developments in the aided countries? Is the southern range in Europe becoming safer? These are issues worth of deliberation.

Achievements:  1. From the angle of solving the problems related to economic growth in south Mediterranean nations, the NMP has prominently achieved positive effects. Since the 1990’s, most of the south Mediterranean nations have adopted prudent financial and monetary policies, managing to see macro economy recovery and stability with inflation rate staying at one-digit level. Also, they have evidently reduced debt burdens by keeping the debt service ratio (DSR) lower than the safe standard of 25%.[9] Due to the focus on market economy-oriented economic regulation, these countries are able to maintain a stable inflow of foreign aid. During 2000~2006, the EU has funded 5.35 billion euros for these nations. Based on the economic regulation, the economic systems of these countries have transformed from planned economy to market economy, and their private investments experienced relatively rapid growth. In Turkey and Tunisia, the private investments have outweighed the investment by the government. As a whole, the foreign direct investment has seen an increasing trend, and a host of countries resume and maintain medium economic growth.[10] With the development of market economy, industries especially the labor-intensive industry as well as service sector expanded rapidly. In Turkey, Tunisia and other countries, industrial finished products have taken the place of raw products to become the key exports. We shall mention that success in sustainable development has notably improved the environmental status in many countries. However, these achievements in economic growth cannot be entirely attributed to the EU’s NMP. In fact, since 1980’s, most of the south Mediterranean nations have implemented the economic “structural adjustment” schemes offered by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to commence economic restructuring, with the aim to stabilize macro-economy and transform to market economy. Moreover, the long-term soaring price of global oil and increased oil income are major reasons to retain economic growth in some nations. But it is doubtless that keeping stable macro-economy and transition to market economy as well as realizing sustainable development is in accordance with adjustment in these nations and the direction advocated by international organizations. Financial supports from the EU play an active role in the economic adjustment process of the south Mediterranean countries.

2. In the political perspective, the fact that the EU forced the south Mediterranean nations to accelerate political reform by connecting it with assistance has encouraged the assisted countries to take momentous moves in political reform. For instance, after signing the EMA agreement with the EU, Tunisia has carried out a series of political revolution. In December 1996, the Parliament approved the amendments to the Constitution, setting women’s equal right with men to run for councilor. In March 1993, the Parliament approved the amendments to the Constitution, and leaders of opposition Parties are entitled to run for president. In April 2002, the Parliament approved the amendments to the Constitution and it is called as “an essential reform in political constitution”. Its main contents include: first, human rights upholding is contained in the Constitution, respect for individual dignity is added, freedom of personal behaviors is assured; Second, political principles to build a country of legal system and diversification are written in the Constitution. Third, the Parliament has an additional method to ask for responsibility and inquire into matters of the government, including oral questioning, real-time inquiry, so the Parliament’s supervision over the government is strengthened. Fourth, one-round system of the presidential election is extended to two rounds so as to provide more opportunities for the opposition parties. Fifth, unicameral parliamentary system is replaced by a bicameral system, and newly-set senators will be proportionally selected from various careers, regions and levels in the society to be more representative. Sixth, the Constitution committee is granted the function to oversee the procedure of constitutional and political elections. All these reforms are helpful for the protection of civil rights and their chances to participate in politics.

Problems: The EU’s NMP also has some limitations. 1. From the economic growth point of view, though the south Mediterranean nations have formed or joined several regional organizations of economic cooperation, their mutual trade and investment activities can hardly develop to a larger scale due to duplicate industry configurations and lack of complementary nature in their economy. Differences in the ideology and disputes on the border territories also become heavy holdbacks for their economic integration. Second, the EU’s agricultural protectionism has restricted its free trading process with the south Mediterranean nations. Agriculture and fishery are not only these nations’ important exporting sectors to the EU, but also a crucial matter for the development of their rural areas and population. However, for the need of protecting the interests of European farm owners, the EU has always practiced trade protectionism. Farm products produced by the agricultural segments in most south Mediterranean nations are similar to those by the EU member states, and the former also enjoy huge competition edges. Whereas a 20~80% tariff reduction and exemption is available to some of the produce according to the EMAs, only those which are not yielded by the EU, such as dates, mangos, early-maturing onions and tomatoes, can be eligible for that policy. What is more, these preferential treatments are merely effective during certain periods throughout a year. In many cases, the EU’s Preferential Tariff Program makes no sense and the serious non-tariff barriers continue to be a big obstacle for farm produce from the south Mediterranean nations. The fishery product exporters in the area also encounter similar impacts of trade protectionism. To protect the interests of its farm owners, so far the EU has only opened up the industrial products segment. Furthermore, according to the agreements signed with the EU, the south Mediterranean nations must lower the tariff level on an annual basis to provide easier domestic market access for the EU’s products. Third, in spite of the modest economic growth for years in these nations, the high unemployment rate makes their European-style welfare and social security systems a dream out of reach. Under this circumstance, even the EU find it difficult to diminish the south Mediterranean nations’ needs for huge immigration to its member states without settling the unemployment rate problem or thoroughly healing the issue of illegal migration, to which the EU’s NMP never delivers any effective remedies.

2. The political mode that the EU is promoting across the Mediterranean region is also faced by outstanding problems such as how to coordinate political reform and stability. First, the south Mediterranean nations are mostly developing countries with medium income of their people, comparatively lower levels of economic and cultural progress, widened gap in social incomes, ongoing process of their economic transition and more acute conflicts in the society. Second, a lot of these nations are suffering from fierce ethnic and religious clashes, which can even result in furious conflicts or civil wars. Third, the turbulent situations in the Middle East are threatening the political stability in many countries, with attacks made by radical forces on the rise. The situation decides that for a long time, most nations in the area will depend on authoritative regimes to sustain political stability, some will be under control of a king with real power, and some will undergo civil war in absence of authoritative regimes. For example, the US has attempted to conduct democratic reconstruction in the Middle East countries since the Iraq War. Nonetheless, the outcome of election often ended with anti-US Islamic force to come into power or spread their political influence, so America has to keep a low profile. Therefore, the application of European-style democratic model in the southern Mediterranean region might not achieve the goal as expected by the EU members, most probably it will turn against its original intention to realize security and stability in southern Europe by implementing the NMP. In this sense, the EU mode has a long way to go in terms of democracy and politics before successfully operating in the south Mediterranean nations. Even in Tunisia, where political democratization sees remarkable progress, political stability is to a degree based on President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s personal authority and the enduring political power of the Democratic Constitutional Party. The EU does not believe the constitutional amendment in Tunisia has satisfied its political reform standards. According to EU’s 2004 assessment report, the electoral system in that country is in favor of the ruling party, the current legal framework is against the independent development of a civil society, press and publication industries only enjoy limited liberty, and human rights organizations are not well recognized. Hence, there is much uncertainty whether the EU can triumphantly export its political model under current political situations in the southern Mediterranean region.

Conclusion

With an aim to maintain the security and markets in southern Europe, the EU has instituted the “New Mediterranean Policy”. A group of the most advanced countries worldwide belong to the EU, which master not only top-notch development conceptions and experience in managing a nation, but also rather polished economic and political systems. EU’s implementation of the NMP has provided opportunities for nations along the southern Mediterranean to handle issues that exist in their development. For this reason, the Policy has rendered positive effects in pushing these countries’ growth in many aspects. However, owing to their different situations from that of Europe, the south Mediterranean nations cannot clone the EU model which is not entirely applicable to their own. Once a contradiction occurs between the interests of the EU and the south Mediterranean nations, the latter will barely receive retrieval from the former because the EU implements the New Mediterranean Policy for the sake of their own security and economic interests. For the south Mediterranean nations, the real mission lies in borrowing excellent fruits of development from the European countries, while exploiting opportunities offered by the New Mediterranean Policy to robustly explore a development path that suits their own situations. For the EU, it should rectify the New Mediterranean Policy based on the reality and needs of the south Mediterranean nations so as to boost growth in that area and ultimately win security and markets in the southern Europe.