“He Mediterranean It is not nonsense.” Cradle of historical civilizations, the region embraces three continents, three monotheistic religions, dozens of languages and alphabets and up to 22 countries that share 46,000 kilometers of maritime border. It is also crucial for the future of the European Union in an international scenario marked by uncertainty and geopolitical turbulence.
Three decades after the so-called Barcelona Declaration, which advocated greater political and economic association between Europa y Africathe community club tries to strengthen the ties of cooperation with its southern neighbors. It is for this reason that, a month ago, Brussels announced the Pact for the Mediterranean, a new strategy to give shape to that ambition.
However, neighborhood may not be enough to forge the desired alliances. “The UE has to put on the table an offer that is attractive, something more than the paternalistic vision in which we sell our values as universal ones,” he warned. Stefano Sanninomanaging director for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf European Commission. The proposed bilateral model goes beyond providing aid to Mediterranean countries in exchange for the adoption of specific policies. “We must be more humble,” he added, “not establish what they have to do from Western arrogance.”
Nasser Kamel, secretary general of the Union for the Mediterranean, talks during the European Bridges organized by EL PERIÓDICO. / Jordi Otix
European bridges
The veteran Italian diplomat, secretary general of the European External Action Service between 2021 and the beginning of this year, has been one of the main speakers at the third edition of European Bridgesan agora organized by EL PERIÓDICO and Agenda Pública with the sponsorship of the Government of Catalonia to connect European companies and institutions to bring current crucial issues to the table.
Under the title The Mediterranean as a bridge and border between Europe, Africa and the Middle Eastthe Prensa Ibérica event met this Monday in the Ramón y Cajal room of the University of Barcelona to diplomats, academics and researchers who have addressed the multiple challenges that the EU faces in deploying this strategy of seduction before powers such as USA o China. “Europe is weaker than in 1995 and that makes looking south increasingly necessary,” he noted. Leg painsdirector of the Catalunya Europa Foundation. “We could have had much closer cooperation with North Africa that would have led to more prosperous results for our societies.”
The EU and its Mediterranean partners also face an avalanche of challenges in which they need to face together such as climate changethe migrationenergy autonomy or the “demographic bomb” of the region – in the words of Camats – in the face of an increasingly aging Europe. Sannino has warned that, to respond to these problems, Brussels must maintain a “flexible” position to reach agreements “country by country”, but that the southern neighbors also “have to decide what they want.”
Stefano Sannino and Dolors Camats, director of the Fundació Catalunya Europa, during the European Bridges organized by EL PERIÓDICO. / Jordi Otix
New measures
Sannino has announced that in March 2026 the details of this new Pact for the Mediterranean will be announced, which will include concrete measures to weave a Common Marketconnect European universities with North Saharan and Persian Gulf universities, speed up the granting of always to guarantee the free movement of academics from the region (and thus make knowledge flow) or expand the program Erasmus to the southern neighbors, a proposal viewed favorably by Nasser Kamelsecretary general of the Union for the Mediterranean, also present at the meeting.
Can Europe look to the east and, at the same time, also to the south? This issue, strategic for the EU, has marked much of the debate. The expansion of the community club to eastern countries such as Poland o Hungary could have reduced the deepening of the union, Camats has indicated. That is causing skepticism to grow with the candidacies of Türkiye, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldavia y Georgia. In that sense, Sannino has pointed out that every relationship is a matter of two and that commitment is crucial. “At some point we have deceived each other,” he confessed.
The representative of the Commission for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf has stressed that, although he sees it as vital for Brussels to build bridges with the Mediterranean region, the prioritization of this eastern enlargement does not respond to spurious issues, but rather to the winds of guerra that blow from Moscow. “We must not underestimate the threats of Russia“, he warned. “The security of Europe is at risk. “The Baltics see it more closely, but this affects us all.”
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