Euro-med Integration and the ‘ring of Friends’

The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Process against a backdrop of widening and deepening of the European Union and the policies of the Union and the Communities has been the subject of study by the members of the EU-Med Transnational Regional Research Network, co-ordinated from Malta with Commission support, for the last five years. This is the fourth in a series of books published by the Network. Much has changed in those five years. Much has been achieved under the Process. Much remains to be done. The Network has tracked change, whether it came from within the European Union, from within the non-member Mediterranean States of the Union or from the wider global context, and whether it was change restricted in the first place to Member States or whether it was of direct relevance to EU-Med relations. Never has the pace of change been so fast or so far-reaching as in the last two years. Much of that recent process of change will come to fruition with the conclusion of the Intergovernmental Conference in 2003/2004. The adoption of a Constitution for the European Union heralds a new dawn not only for the European Union but also for Europe as a whole, for all “Neighbours” of the union and indeed for the world.