Mediterranean Neighbourhood: The Key Triptych Energy-Water-Agriculture
Résumé
Along with political unrest since the Arab spring, the stakes of the Mediterranean neighbourhood are numerous: social booming disparities, gender gap, numeric illiteracy, critical case of water supply and agricultural land, difficult decentralisation and state de-concentration. But opportunities are still wider: the Mediterranean is the only neighbourhood whose population and GDP's world share is growing; the rent economy is (slowly) shifting towards a more productive economy with a rising role of clusters; huge investment needs mean huge opportunities for European investors. Secondly, the chapter assesses the trends in economic regional integration (``regionalisation''), showing that the Euro-Mediterranean missing link remains the productive integration. It estimates the importance of the European aid and the normative convergence of norms and standards between the two sides of the Mediterranean (``regionalism''). Its strategic recommendations stress four needs: (i) a common water policy so as to avoid water wars; a food security and agricultural policy; a Euro-Mediterranean Energy Community; turning the ``migration'' vision to a ``mobility'' strategy. In the very difficult transition of Arab neighbours, time calls for a political boldness in Euromed cooperation.