Despite centuries of conflict, more recently intensified in the 20th century following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, there has always been a quest for peace, stability, and prosperity in this region, encompassing Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Cyprus, Malta, Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal.44
Since the inception of the EEC, there have been efforts to develop relations with the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean. However, these ties really only began to take shape as Europe began to raise its sights towards developing countries in the 1970s. By the beginning of the 1980s,...