European Union and North Africa

Participants of the peer-review workshop discussed the future of EU-North Africa relations.

Dr. Adel Abdel Ghafar, fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, Dr. Canan Atilgan, director of the KAS Regional Program, Mary Fitzgerald, independent researcher, and Dr. Arturo Varvelli, Co-Head of ISPI's MENA Center.

Hedi Larbi, Associate at the Belfer Center and Former Tunisian Minister (left), and Dr. Dalia Ghanem-Yazbeck, Resident Scholar at Carnegie's Middle East Center.

Dr. Arturo Varvelli, Co-Head of ISPI's MENA Centre, Olaf Wientzek, KAS Coordinator European Policy, and Camelia Oaida from the Delegation for Relations with Maghreb countries (DMAG), European Parliament (left to right)

Youssef Cherif, Deputy Director of Columbia Global Centers, Tunis.

Intissar Fakir, Editor-in-Chief of Sada at Carnegie, Francesca Fabbri, Junior Policy Analyst at the European Policy Centre, and Dr. Silvia Colombo, Senior Fellow and Head of the MENA Program at the International Affairs Institute (left to right).

Dr. Gennaro Gervasio, Senior Lecturer at Roma Tre University, was a discussant on the panel on EU-Egypt relations.

Aboubakr Jamaï, Dean of the School of Business and International Relations at IAU College in Aix En Provence; Florence Liou, Deputy-Head of Middle East and North Africa Division at the European External Action Service (EEAS); and Dr. Robert P. Parks, Director of the Centre d’Etudes Maghrebines en Algerie (CEMA) (left to right).

The roundtable was held in Cadenabbia at Lake Como, Italy.

In order to shape optimal policy outcomes for the EU and understand the key issues driving this relationship also from the perspectives of the North African countries, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung’s Regional Program South Mediterranean organized a roundtable entitled "European Union and North Africa: The Path to a New Relationship" comprising officials of the European Parliament and the European External Action Service, representatives of European and North African think tanks as well as experts on the region in an effort to outline short and long-term policy solutions able to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes for both sides of the Mediterranean and to refresh approaches towards the European neighbourhood.

The two-day roundtable in Italy also served as preparation and peer-review workshop for a study commissioned by KAS, which brings together five researchers to identify shortcomings and prospects over the coming decade and analyse how a path to a new partnership of the respective countries with the EU could look like. The expert papers will combine expectations and perspectives from the Southern partner countries with concise recommendations for EU policy makers in Brussels.

North Africa presents itself to the EU as a diverse region in need of tailor-made approaches and strategies. However, looking at similarities and differences of EU engagement and relations in the region, a number of common themes and challenges could be identified, including: the need for a new approach emphasizing resilience and good governance rather than focusing on the overrated prism of stability and migration; building on this the necessity for economic and political institution building; finding effective solutions to the issue of state capture as well as increasing youth unemployment; finding a balance between empowering local governance and undermining the capacity and legitimacy of the nation state; dealing with the issue of finality and determining what North African partners require from the EU while EU institutions need to increase the visibility of their efforts; and the need for the EU to meet these common challenges through a unified approach of long-term strategic thinking and development policies rather than quick fixes.