Networking Cities, Communities, and Regions in the Mediterranean Area

As a new field of EU policy, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is a part and a result of a reorganization of the Union’s political institutions, which had its beginnings in diverse insights: with its enlargement, the EU severed economic and cultural areas that had developed until then, creating new fault lines. The prosperity gap and the resultant conflict and migration potential along the external borders of the Union have increased. The hot spots in the Mediterranean and Black Sea region have moved closer. The demands on an EU foreign policy which needs to be renovated have expanded. And finally – given these developments, the Union’s accession policy needs to be revised.