The EU and its Mediterranean partners

General framework and overview of the Barcelona Process

After 20 years of increasingly intensive bilateral trade and development cooperation between the European Union, the 15 Member States and its 12 Mediterranean Partners, the Conference of EU and Mediterranean Foreign Ministers in Barcelona (27-28 November 1995) marked the start into a new "partnership" phase of the relationship including bilateral and multilateral or regional cooperation (hence called Barcelona Process or, in general, Euro-Mediterranean Partnership).

The 12 Mediterranean Partners, situated in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean are Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia (Maghreb); Egypt, Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Lebanon, Syria (Mashrek); Turkey, Cyprus and Malta; Libya currently has observer status at certain meetings.

Key objectives of the Barcelona Process

The Barcelona Declaration adopted at the Barcelona Conference expresses the 27 partners’ intention to:

• Establish a common Euro-Mediterranean area of peace and stability based on fundamental principles including respect for human rights and democracy (political and security partnership),
• Create an area of shared prosperity through the progressive establishment of a free-trade area between the EU and its Partners and among the Mediterranean Partners themselves, accompanied by substantial EU financial support for economic transition in the Partners and for the social and economic consequences of this reform process (economic and financial partnership), and
• Develop human resources, promote understanding between cultures and rapprochement of the peoples in the Euro-Mediterranean region as well as to develop free and flourishing civil societies (social, cultural and human partnership).