Direct Investments and Institutional Cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean Region

Economic integration and institutional cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean region are following diverging paths. Notwithstanding the financial and economic troubles of the euro area, prospects for European direct investments in Mediterranean countries and for Euro-Mediterranean trade flows are favorable. Institutional cooperation, by contrast, is disappointing due to the substantial impasse in the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM). Today, traditional patterns are reversed, with private actors playing the key role in promoting Mediterranean economic integration, while political initiatives languish.