The Inconsistent Human Rights Agenda of EU Mediterranean Policy

Abstract

Vagueness and inconsistency in policy formulation represent an underlying factor for the longstanding weakness and ineffectiveness of EU human rights action towards the Mediterranean neighbourhood. This article aims to shed light on the causes of such flaws in policy-making and grasp their consequences on EU approaches on the matter, focusing on the competing preferences vis-a-vis the role and scope of human rights held by the key actors who have affected the direction of EU Mediterranean policy over time. The article argues that the roots of human rights inconsistency therein lie in the EU’s protracted incapability to coherently conciliate such competing views despite opportunities to do so emerging periodically throughout the last thirty years of Euro-Mediterranean relations. EU Mediterranean policy, EU foreign policy analysis, human rights, political conditionality, Barcelona Process, European Neighbourhood Policy, civil society organizations