Parliamentary Diplomacy and the Arab Spring: Evidence from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean and the European Parliament

Abstract

The literature includes numerous analyses of the role played by regional organizations during the Arab Spring. However, the emerging role played by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM), as the only truly intra-regional pan-Mediterranean institution, has not been sufficiently explored. This essay helps fill this gap by assessing the parliamentary diplomacy activities performed by PAM vis-à-vis the Arab Spring countries between 2011 and 2016. A comparative perspective is adopted, using the literature on the European Parliament (EP) as the point of reference. This approach allows one to grasp how the EP and PAM have reacted to common problems and challenges affecting the Mediterranean and identifies possible overlaps and divisions of labor between the two international parliamentary institutions.