Download This PaperEuroMed, Migration and Frenemy-Ship: Pretending to Deepen Cooperation Across the Mediterranean
F Ippolito and S Trevisanut (eds.), Migration in the Mediterranean: Mechanisms of International Co-operation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 41-65.
University of Groningen Faculty of Law Research Paper 2015/15
19 Pages Posted: 15 Jan 2015 Last revised: 7 Mar 2018
Date Written: January 13, 2015
Abstract
This chapter provides a brief overview of the EU’s Mediterranean policy, to demonstrate that it is too complex, haphazard and ineffective to be a real vehicle for controlling irregular migration in the region. The poor incentives offered to the partners make improvements on the ground difficult and the heavy reliance on conditionality is inexplicable in a situation where the ‘shared’ core values are a mere rhetorical statement, rather than an empirically-grounded observation. Conditionality and help with democracy, human rights protection and the rule of law naturally turn into unfriendly acts aiming at regime change in this context. Unable to affect the root-causes of migration, owing to misconceived value-laden assumptions and dysfunctional policy, the EU suffers from the fruits of its own incapacity and indecision: mare nostrum is a mass grave. Worse still, the EU’s own adherence to its stated values when dealing with irregular migrants is overwhelmingly problematic and is in need of profound reassessment.
Keywords: EU, Law, EuroMed, Migration, ENP, external relations, Mediterranean Union, North Africa
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