EU4Seas: the European Union and sub-regional multilateralism in the European sea basins

This three-year research project analysed the effects of European strategies and policies in the four "European" sea basins: the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The project, begun in January 2009, brought together eight institutes and was coordinated by the Fundació Centre Internacional de Documentació of Barcelona (CIDOB. The aim was to determine whether European policies (enlargement, neighbourhood, partnership, etc.) were consistent with the objective of promoting multilateralism at a regional and sub-regional levels. The IAI was leader of WP 2 (“Politics and Security”) and was represented on the project’s steering committee.
A workshop on the political and security aspects of sub-regional cooperation in the European sea basins was held in Rome in April 2009 (see Documenti IAI 09|13).
Between late 2009 and early 2010, the IAI carried out the project’s field work in the following countries: Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon and Libya. Hundreds of interviews as well as the so-called "best practices reports" are available on the project's website. In addition, a theoretical analysis of sub-regional cooperation in the Mediterranean and the EU's role in it appeared in the article by Michele Comelli, "Sub-regional Cooperation in the Mediterranean and the Role of the EU", published in European Foreign Affairs Review, No. 3, 2010.
On 6-7 June 2011, the IAI organised a seminar in Turin aimed at disseminating the results of the project as to how the EU has delivered in each of the four maritime basins with regard to the objective of promoting regional and sub-regional multilateralism. The seminar concluded with a roundtable on the EU’s response to the challenges of the Arab Spring.