Publication

The European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) integrates EU foreign policies with those of neighboring Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPCs) under a common and coherent strategic umbrella. The emphasis lies on economic and political conditionality, and on offering incentives to those MPCs who introduce economic and political reforms in order to participate in the Single European Market (SEM). This working paper analyzes the ENP from the standpoint of its hypothetical economic impact on MPCs, specifically with regard to the effects of MPC participation in the SEM. The author discusses the current economic divergences between the EU and the MPC economies and regards the liberalization of services as a very complex issue. He concludes that the full 'Europeanization' of economic institutions in MPCs might not be feasible in the short term and that the ambiguities of the concept "ownership" fail to face the challenges of the region.