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This paper contributes to the reflection on the perspectives of the relations between the two continents by looking at the transformation of Euro-Mediterranean negotiations from 1995 to 2017. In particular, it conceptualizes the Euro-Mediterranean space as a negotiation system wherein European and the so-called Southern Neighbourhood actors have negotiated not only the contents of their relations, but also the ‘rules of the game’. The extent to which the EU and third countries from the Southern Mediterranean region have engaged, and are currently engaging, in constructing, deconstructing and re-constructing the negotiation architecture testifies about their power relations, expectations and perceptions.
The paper shows that negotiations on the rules of the game in Euro-Mediterranean relations took place in three phases which do not necessarily correspond to the main Euro-Mediterranean policies (the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, the European Neighbourhood Policy and the revised Neighbourhood Policy after 2011). One phase was characterised by the EU’s transfer of its internal negotiation architecture to the external arena and the limited resistance to this institutionalization by non-EU countries. A second phase of contestation of the rules of game and strategic use of those rules by Southern Mediterranean partners and a third phase aimed at deconstructing and transforming the institutional framework of the negotiations
