Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza and the US-Israeli confrontation with Iran have shattered the regional security architecture of the Eastern Mediterranean and thrust the region into the centre of geopolitical thinking. Many of the pre-war assumptions, particularly the United States’ role as ultimate security guarantor, have been swept away, while regional powers like Israel, Turkey and the Gulf states are growing more assertive, increasingly turning the Mediterranean basin into a multipolar arena, in which the EU is losing its traditional leverage as the region’s ‘dominant framer’.
Against this volatile backdrop, the European Commission is advancing the EU’s Pact for the Mediterranean. The initiative aims to reinvigorate strained relations between Europe and its Southern neighbourhood and restore European credibility in a time of deep polarisation. Yet, while the pact looks promising on paper, its success will depend on whether the EU can move past its usual unilateral approach and embrace genuine co-ownership and transparency.
In this dossier, the Progressive Post reflects on how to navigate this new geopolitical sea, analyses the role the EU truly aspires to play and asks whether the European Union is truly willing to deploy the necessary resources to become a meaningful actor in its own backyard.
