The Euro-Mediterranean partnership as an example of Mediterranean policy within the European Union

In light of the dramatic events in the Middle East in the course of the spring 2003, it has become more and more important to focus the interest on the multidimentional relationship between the West and the Arabic world. The Barcelona process or the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) is relatively purely known, but nevertheless an important aspect of the European Union's policy towards the Arabic countries. The EMP was launched in 1995 between the EU and 12 countries on the southern side of the Mediterranean Sea. The article gives a brief account of the content and the form of the project by December 2002 and explains at the same time the motives behind the European activities in the Mediterranean region. The three parts of the project (the political, the economical . and the cultural partnership) are then analysed focusing on the actual challenges. Problems are of financial as well as of cultural character, but the main responsibility for the slow progress which has characterised the project is to be sought in the diverse interests of the member countries within important areas as trade and security politics.