European Support for Arab Parliaments: A Successful Way to Democracy?

This article contributes to the Special Issue “Parliaments in the Middle East and North Africa: A Struggle for Relevance”. In the Euro-Mediterranean region, several international parliamentary initiatives are engaged in parliamentary diplomacy and cooperation. Aside from the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean (pa-UfM) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (pam) cross the shores. In addition, a number of national European parliaments, as well as governmental and non-governmental organizations, cooperate with Arab parliaments in a bilateral manner.Based on the author’s own research in Brussels, Amman, Cairo, Rabat, Tunis, and Valletta, the article analyzes cross-Mediterranean parliamentary relations and argues that parliamentary cooperation could facilitate an increase in Arab parliaments’ overall relevance, eventually leading to advanced democratization; however, the authoritarian regimes still in place in most Arab countries still successfully prevent a meaningful strengthening of national legislatures. International support offers thus require broader transformations in their partner countries before yielding success.

Regional-Based Conflict and Confidence-Building Strategies: The Case of the Union for the Mediterranean

This study considers the challenge of operating a regional association that includes combatants and adversaries as members, and the response to such challenges. Conflict type, defined by intensity and duration, is located on the vertical axis, and engagement level (international, regional and bilateral) is fixed along the horizontal axis, to distinguish the conditions supporting confidence-building (one of many peacebuilding approaches). The utility of this framework is examined by applying it to the Union for the Mediterranean – a 42-member association operating in a region where conflict is prevalent (Syrian war, Arab – Israeli conflict, Greece – Turkey conflict, and Algeria – Morocco conflict). The study concludes that confidence-building has relevance to hot and cold intractable conflict but not to contemporary war. Curiously, the intractable conflict literature rarely discusses confidence-building and the Euromed literature does not characterize EU behavior in a confidence-building context. The study builds a research agenda to further examine the confidence-building framework.

Sustainability of Food Systems in the Mediterranean Region

Despite the recurring discourse on food systems and their sustainability in the Mediterranean region, compre-hensive studies are hard to find. Therefore, this article provides an overview on the challenges and perspectives of food systems in the Mediterranean. In particular, the paper addresses the main challenges (environmental, economic, socio-cultural and nutrition-health) facing Mediterranean food systems; analyses the multifaceted relations between sustainable food systems (SFS) and sustainable diets by exploring the example of the Medi-terranean diet; and briefly presents the relevance of the innovation for Mediterranean food systems. The paper highlights the urgency of action to move towards sustainable and resilient food systems in the Mediterranean area. This is particularly relevant in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. For that, there is a need for shared policy, governance, practice and research agenda. In this respect, the contribution of CIHEAM results fundamental. The paper concludes by highlighting the disruptive potential of the SFS-Med Platform – under co-development by CIHEAM, FAO and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) – to foster food systems trans-formation towards sustainability and accelerate the achievement of SDGs in the region.

Changing Route: Common Action on Food Systems Transformation in the Mediterranean

The Coronavirus pandemic has revealed the fragility of our food systems, affecting all dimensions of food security and nutrition across the world. It has highlighted how deeply our world is interconnected and the importance of better recognising and understanding the interconnections that are intrinsic to these systems and their key role in pursuit of the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda. There is now, more than ever, a stronger need for a “route change” towards a common action on food systems transformation. Dialogues among all stakeholders to redesign the future of tomorrow’s food systems are needed to trigger collective, multi-stakeholder actions on the ground, at local, regional and global level, towards more sustainable food systems, linking sustainable food production to more healthy and sustainable food consumption. In this context CIHEAM, FAO, and the Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat (UfMS) initiated in 2019, a joint collaborative effort for the establishment of a multi-stakeholder platform on Sustainable Food Systems in the Mediterranean to accelerate the shift towards the Agenda 2030 in the Mediterranean region, with the Mediterranean diet acting as a driver.

Conceptualizing Pathways of Sustainable Development in the Union for the Mediterranean Countries with an Empirical Intersection of Energy Consumption and Economic Growth

The availability of sufficient and trustworthy energy services at the reasonable cost in a securely and environmentally friendly manner, and conventionality with economic and social development requirements, is an important factor of sustainable development (SD). Energy plays a significant role in eliminating poverty and increasing living standards. However, most of the present energy forms of energy supply and consumption are unsustainable. This paper analyzes the association between economic growth (EG), energy consumption (EC), and sustainable development (SD) among other economic factors. The sample of 14 developed and developing member states of the Union for the Mediterranean (UFM) was selected. To deal with the endogeneity issue, the system- generalized method of moment (GMM) model was employed. Moreover, panel co-integration, Granger causality tests, and robustness tests were employed to examine the long-run and short-run causality among variables of interest. The results confirmed the short-run dynamic association from sustainable development (SD) to energy consumption (EC), and economic growth (EG) to sustainable development (SD). Moreover, the results validated the presence of long-run equilibrium association in the equations of EC and sustainable development (SD). The findings of this study will be supportive for the policymakers to formulate sustainable energy policies to stimulate the economic growth (EG) in the way of sustainable development (SD) in the UFM countries.

Strategy To Strengthen Cooperation Between The European Union And The Mediterranean Countries Through The Union For Mediterranean (UfM)

The European Union is an example of regional cooperations that represents regional identity. In the midst of the process of integration and expansion of membership, the European Union has an interest in building good relations with non-member countries in the immediate region, including the Mediterranean. The process of establishing cooperation between the European Union and the Mediterranean countries continues to change. The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) in 1995 was the place for regional cooperation with most member countries and had a well-structured pillar of cooperation. However, the two entities re-formed a new cooperative platform, The Union for Mediterranean (UfM) in 2008. This study aims to explain why the European Union and Mediterranean countries changed the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) into The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) in 2008. Using the theory building approach in the Alex Warleigh-Lack regionalism concept, the findings in the research resulted in an answer that EMP has negative values that are not in accordance with the development of the issue so that it becomes a reason for the formation of UfM.