DOCUMENTI IAI - WESTERN-MEDITERRANEAN SECURITY RELATIONS: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES - ISTITUTO AFFARI INTERNAZIONALI

The problems are obvious: • there is a lack of a common perception of the importance of the Mediterranean within the western institutions; • concerning all security aspects, especially within the EMP, there is a high dependency of the EMP from the regulation of the Middle and Near East conflict. [...] The intention of the EU expressed 1998 in Saint Maló and 1999 in Cologne to establish a Rapid Reaction Force under the responsibility of the European Council will inevitably increase the still existing mistrust among the southern Mediterranean countries about the intention and the possible areas of action of such a RRF. [...] And also NATO’s New Strategic Concept where NATO’s willingness to act without a UN-Mandate is expressed and where the scope for possible future actions of the Alliance is expanded to the Euro-Atlantic periphery and the need to enhance the power- projection capabilities of the Alliance is going to intensify concerns in the southern Mediterranean states that NATO is concentrating on possible future. [...] 4 Both developments have the potential to deepen the still existing perception that the West is considering the South as a hostile block and that NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue main objective is to reach a specific agreement with some Arab countries to secure the access of possible future CJTF-Operations to the military infrastructure of these countries and to monitor the flow of missile technology. [...] Like the Euro- Atlantic Partnership Council of NATO, the Head of States of the EU and NATO should meet following their summits with the Heads of States of the southern Mediterranean countries to inform them about their decisions and the intentions behind those decisions.