Security as an Interregional Concern: The EU and the Middle East

In this paper European-Middle Eastern security relations are being investigated with particular reference to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The study underlines the European Union’s important role in the Middle East in terms of economic cooperation and development assistance, but it also highlights the obstacles the European Union faces in reaching a unified position in the Middle East security discussion. The paper asks how and with what success the European Union has tried to promote regional security through the Euro-Mediterranean Partner-ship, in particular in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is argued that the European Union’s attempt to advance regional security through the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership remains elusive and fragile. EU policy towards the Middle East Peace Process still depends largely on particular EU presidencies. The fact that the Middle East is so poorly organized as a region and tends to favor bilateral negotiations with the European Union and individual member states results in a divergent mixture of foreign policy relations and competing visions of the Middle East.