Strengthening the strategic choice offered to the EU’s southern Mediterranean neighbours. CEPS Commentary, 1 February 2013

Blockmans, Steven. and Van Vooren, Bart (2013) Strengthening the strategic choice offered to the EU’s southern Mediterranean neighbours. CEPS Commentary, 1 February 2013. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

Finding that the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) currently lacks a strategic vision that would offer states in the southern Mediterranean substantial returns in exchange for making tough reforms, this CEPS Commentary suggests that this weakness can be overcome through a concrete prospect of regional integration pro-actively driven forward by the European Union. Taking inspiration from current projects such as the Energy Community Treaty, the authors urge the EU to explicitly incorporate “legally binding sectoral multilateralism” into the ENP. This would provide the Union’s partners with a tangible prospect of reaping real long-term benefits from EU cooperation and reinvigorate the ENP for the next decade.

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