Mobility Partnerships and Security Subcomplexes in the Mediterranean: The Strategic Role of Migration and the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policies Towards the MENA Region

Abstract

The present article discusses the negotiating and implementing of Mobility Partnership (MP) agreements between the European Union (EU) and Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia. Taking its starting point in the conceptual notions of subregional security complexes and non-traditional security issues, the article analyses the MPs by looking at the strategic significance of migration in the context of EU’s foreign and security policy cooperation with the five Arab Mediterranean states. The MPs are seen as an important element in the EU’s overall migration strategy, but have been met with reluctance by the Arab partner states. The article concludes that so far only to a limited degree have the MPs developed into well-functioning tools for managing the migration policies of the EU and its partners states, and that they seem mainly to play a role as instruments for the EU’s foreign and security policy interests.