Understanding the EEC Mediterranean Policy: Trade, Security, Development and the Redrafting of Mediterranean Boundaries

This essai based on EU, Italian, French and British archival sources proposes a new reading of the origins and logics of EEC approach to the Mediterranean in the 1970s by 1. shedding light on the links between EEC policy and the regional and international events such as the 1967 Middle Eastern crisis, the rise of Soviet presence in the Mediterranean, the Lybian revolution, the energy issue 2. reevaluating Italian role as a promoter of EEC Mediterranean initiative, 3. and reinterpreting France's "leading role" 4. explaining the use of the "development language" to legitimize political-economic initiative in front of USA opposition. It further explains the decline of the EEC policy following UK admission, and the decline of the regional approach after the political events in Southern Europe, namely the return to democracy in Spain, Portugal and Greece produced a permanent redefinition of the Mediterranean boundaries.