EU Policies towards the Middle East

In general, the first aspect people think of when mentioning the Middle East in relation to EU foreign policies is the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the low impact the EU has (had) in shaping the Middle East Peace Process. However, if one analyses relevant data, another conclusion may be drawn. Ginsberg (2001) provides an overview of EU’s impact, which, admitted, may be not directly related to the peace process itself, but more focussed on development policies in the region (especially policies related to the Palestinian Authority), thereby facilitating necessary preconditions to make a peace process possible. It is this approach I take in this essay, by analysing development efforts initiated via the Barcelona Declaration (Anon, 1995) signed by the 12 Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries in 1995, comparing the effects on Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and the ‘West Bank and Gaza Strip’ (Palestinian Authority) from an EU perspective, and highlighting the difficult transitions that were required by Lebanon, as an example, from a Lebanese perspective.