The European Union and the Mediterranean: The Impact of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict on Cooperation of the European Union and the Mediterranean Region

Mediterranean has always been an area of fundamental interest of the European Union. The dialogue between the EU and the Mediterranean states was institutionalized already in 1995 within the Barcelona process. The Union for Mediterranean represents the most up-to-date initiative of the EU in the Mediterranean. EU initiatives in the region nevertheless frequently fail because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which complicates cooperation between the EU and the Mediterranean states. EU is therefore also actively involved in the Middle East peace process. So far the EU nevertheless acted more like a sponsor of the Palestinian Autonomy and did not fully use its options to participate at solution of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process due to the inability to always find a real common policy towards the Middle East. The Common Foreign and Security Policy under the Lisbon treaty should help the EU to speak as a unified actor in the international arena. EU thus will be able to play a more important role in the Middle East peace process and fully use its historic, economic and political relations with both Israel and Palestinian Authority and thus contribute to the fulfillment of the objectives of the Barcelona process and Union for Mediterranean to turn the Mediterranean in a real area of peace, cooperation, stability and prosperity.