MEDRESET starts from the premise that both EU policy and research on Euro-Mediterranean relations suffered from one major gap: a Euro-centric approach which has been characterized by 1) a narrow geopolitical conceptualization of the Mediterranean space driven by European economic and security interests; 2) the application of European concepts and values to the Mediterranean, manifested also in a sectoral (instead of integrated) approach to deeply linked policy issues; and 3) the marginalization of local perspectives and human security concerns/the needs of people in the region.
In phase I - aimed at identifying and deconstructing the dominant EU framing and practices in the Mediterranean since the 1970s - WP1 critically examined the dominant EU framing of the Mediterranean and how this informed its approach and translated into practices in three historical stages: the 1970s to 1990, the 1990s to the early 2000s, and the mid-2000s to today. All papers published in WP1 represent an added value to the existing literature, as they clearly aim at tearing down the Euro-centric construction of the region. They all deconstruct the EU’s discourse on the Mediterranean and reveal how it constructs the region (as a market, as conflictual, threatening, etc.) and its own identity (as transformative, civilian, peaceful, post-modern, etc.) in a specific way and designs and legitimizes its policies (securitized, depoliticized, and technocratic) through such rhetoric.
Phase II, which begun with WP2, is aimed at mapping the Mediterranean according to how different stakeholders (regional and external players, local elites, and non-governmental actors on both shores of the Mediterranean) perceive and practice ‘their’ Mediterranean into being on the geopolitical level and in respect to four geopolitically relevant and contentious policy areas: political ideas, agriculture and water, industry and energy, and migration and mobility. WP2, which has the objective of investigating whether EU policies still match the changing geopolitical configuration of the Mediterranean area, is examining the role, influence and impact of rising major powers (China, Russia, the US on the external level; and Israel, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar on the regional level) in the Mediterranean, their policies and major issues at stakes. In so doing, WP2 represents a key contribution to the literature which has almost exclusively focused on analysing the EU vision of the Mediterranean. Thus, WP2 offers a non-Euro centric understanding of the Mediterranean that integrates the different views/constructions of these rising major powers. WP2’s final report will assess the effectiveness of EU policies by investigating whether the observed dynamics of interaction on the geopolitical level are conflictual, competitive and converging with EU policies, and will come forward with a policy brief that outlines how the EU could better respond to such a re-imagined Mediterranean. Of the 10 papers of WP2, the conceptual paper has already been published. The seven draft working papers are currently being revised by the work package leaders and the scientific coordinators and will be submitted as deliverable in month 14 (May 2017).
