L'ambiguïté du limes: quel avenir de la politique Européenne de voisinage?

Abstract

The approach of the European Union towards several regions that might be considered as "gates" to the rest of the world, such as North Africa and the Middle East or the Black Sea area, is becoming more and more ambiguous. This is certainly a paradox, since the actual conditions of world politics would seem to require, on the contrary, a more integrated strategy, and one that is more oriented towards clearly defined objectives. This article proposes a comparative reading of the different European initiatives linked to the European Neighborhood Policy addressed to the two above-mentioned regions: the Barcelona Process, EuroMed and the Union for the Mediterranean, on the one hand, and the Black Sea Synergy and the Eastern Partnership, on the other hand. The content of these cooperations, as well as their objectives and the State and other institutional actors that contribute to them will be examined. The ambiguous nature and the lack of global coherence of these initiatives can be explained through the competition among member States but also among the European institutions in their attempts to assume a leadership position in these policies. Another explanation is the lack of a properly political global strategy of the EU, that should gather the consensus of all member States and link the technical and economic aspects of cooperation to a wider vision of the role and the objectives of the EU in the world.