Mediterranean
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EU-Middle East: Europe flees from “Arab Winter”
19 September 201214354 La Repubblica Rome -
Editorial: Libya: an opportunity not to be missed
26 August 201122Presseurop -
Neighbourhood Policy: Dark clouds over Mare Nostrum
22 March 201162 La Repubblica Rome -
EU-Egypt: An opportunity not to be missed
31 January 20111581 Presseurop -
North Africa: After Tunisia, rethinking the Med
20 January 20111603 Le Monde Paris -
Union for the Mediterranean: The Med’s adrift
23 September 201055 El País Madrid -
International shipping: Adriatic, gateway to the East again
14 September 201029 La Stampa Turin -
Biodiversity: Mediterranean in hot water
3 August 2010158 Público Madrid -
Union for the Mediterranean: UfM, that sinking feeling
19 July 201017PresseuropLa Vanguardia -
EU–Mediterranean: On the other side of the Med
17 March 201018 El País Madrid -
Editorial: All quiet on the Eastern front
11 December 2009Presseurop -
International Cooperation: Sarkozy's Club Med on the rocks
13 July 2009111 El País Madrid
The anti-Western demonstrations in Arab countries and the turn the "Arab Spring" is taking in several countries are shouting out a challenge to Europe. But Europe, looking inward to its economic and institutional crisis, prefers to shirk its responsibilities in the Mediterranean and to rely on the – helpless – United States. 
Initially ignored by Europe, the Mediterranean region was subsequently the focus of several integration projects, all of which failed to produce results. The current crisis, now striking its southern shores, is a testament to the need for a new approach. 
After the cacophony and the hesitation that followed the “Jasmine Revolution” in Tunisia, the EU once more seems paralysed in the face of an uprising against the Egyptian regime of Hosni Mubarak. All the same, notes the European press, it’s another chance to support democracy in its Mediterranean “backyard”. 
Aid packages will not be enough if Europe really wants to promote democracy in Tunisia, writes a specialist on Arab affairs, who believes that the EU should reconsider its entire neighbourhood strategy for Mediterranean Arab countries. 
The enthusiasm with which the Union for the Mediterranean was launched two years ago has been steadily waning ever since. The main reason why, says French political philosopher Sami Naïr, is the lack of a serious EU commitment to the region. 
In the time of the Venetian Republic, the Adriatic ports were the trade capitals for the Orient. They are now reuniting to challenge northern Europe’s maritime monopoly, with an economic and ecological edge. 
Hundreds of scientists have put together the first comprehensive study of the state of the world’s seas, from the Arctic through the tropics to the Antarctic, and come to an alarming verdict: the Mediterranean is the most endangered sea on the planet.
In these times of economic crisis, the countries of the southern Mediterranean are displaying unexpected dynamism – a trend the EU is beginning to shore up with regional cooperation projects, reports El País. 
Launched on 13 July 2008 in Paris, the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) is basically a remodelling of the Barcelona Process that Spain helped get off the ground back in 1995. There was really no need to go to all that trouble, but Nicolas Sarkozy originally had something very different in mind when he initiated this second phase.