Examining Three Decades of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and the Influence of Policy Learning on Substantive Policy Change

The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP or Barcelona Process) began in 1995 to enhance Euro-Mediterranean relations. Initially, the EU aimed to transform its power into positive influence, fostering trust and sharing peace-building experiences through economic cooperation. Over the years, additional initiatives like the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Union for the Mediterranean were introduced to strengthen the EU's capacity in shaping its neighborhood. Scholarly debates surrounding the EMP's continuity and change center on whether the EU learns from its past mistakes and unintended consequences of its foreign policy in the region. Some argue that despite deficits, the EU has made incremental efforts to act as a normative power, reducing transaction costs for all involved. Conversely, critics claim the EU maintains its course, reinforcing existing asymmetries and prioritizing its security. Going beyond such dichotomies, this paper seeks to answer: How have the participants of the EMP experienced policy learning in the last thirty years? And how does policy learning impact the relationship between Europe and the Mediterranean region? It aims to analyze the thirty-year trajectory of the EMP through the lessons, not only acquired by EU policymakers, but also by the most important stakeholders during this period. By taking into account developments at the micro, meso and macro levels, our assumption is based on the premise that the EMP is a construction that involves different actors, such as the EU institutions, governments and civil society actors, who have different aspirations and goals from the EMP. The introduction of a typology that deconstructs the governance of the EMP helps to assess the varying effects of the EMP on relevant stakeholders and to explore the different ideas of the EMP’s success and failure.