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1. Exploring the Potential of Minilateralism for the Europe-Mediterranean Partnership

Author:
Roee Kibrik
Publication Date:
02-2024
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
IEMed/EuroMeSCo
Abstract:
The Mediterranean and Europe, as interconnected regions sharing geographical spaces and proximity, severe challenges, common interests and intertwined goals, present a compelling opportunity to explore minilateralism as a framework for fostering cooperation and developing resilience. This research examines the potential of minilateralism to contribute to the Europe-Mediterranean partnership, highlighting the rationale, objectives, potential areas of focus, and expected outcomes of promoting minilateral frameworks in this context. Two minilateral frameworks will be examined: Israel-Greece-Cyprus and Israel-Morocco-European Union (EU). Based on this examination, the research will discuss particular insights regarding these specific configurations, and general insights regarding characters, opportunities and challenges of minilateralism in the region as a way to foster the Europe-Mediterranean partnership.
Topic:
Regional Cooperation, European Union, Partnerships, Resilience, and Minilateralism
Political Geography:
Europe, Israel, Greece, Morocco, Cyprus, and Mediterranean

2. E-Commerce and the Digital Economy in Morocco, a Factor of Social Inclusivity and Employment: Context, Approach and Limits

Author:
Youssef Tobi
Publication Date:
02-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
IEMed/EuroMeSCo
Abstract:
The Moroccan job market offers few opportunities for young non-educated Moroccans. With the rise of the Internet, many Moroccans sought to find new ways to generate an income and find financial stability. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a rise of Moroccan entrepreneurs in e-commerce and dropshipping and a dramatic increase of motivational and educational content that aims at encouraging more people to seek this type of career. This phenomenon is not well studied, and the link between the rise of digital jobs in Morocco and social inclusiveness is even less explored. In this paper, Youssef Tobi aims to interview dropshippers and other e-commerce professionals to establish the link between the rise of digital jobs and social inclusivity, given that Moroccans who seek this type of professional pathways are often unemployed and come from lower social classes.
Topic:
Digital Economy, Labor Market, E-Commerce, Economic Inclusion, and Jobs
Political Geography:
North Africa and Morocco

3. Cooperation on Readmission in the Euro-Mediterranean Area and Beyond: Lessons Learned and Unlearned

Author:
Jean-Pierre Cassarino, Lorenzo Gabrielli, and Delphine Perrin
Publication Date:
04-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
IEMed/EuroMeSCo
Abstract:
This joint policy study examines the European Union’s (EU) readmission system in the context of the Euro-Mediterranean and Euro-African regions and its impact on interstate cooperation, human rights observance, and migrants’ conditions. The authors suggest rethinking how these issues are tackled by emphasising that asymmetrical patterns of cooperation on readmission result not only from unequal costs and benefits but also from meaningful relations between state actors. The study discusses how cooperation on readmission between EU and non-EU countries in the Mediterranean and Africa has altered patterns of interdependence and interactions beyond migration governance. It explores how informalisation has been presented as a solution to uncertainties, with some non-EU countries expressing their own reverse conditionalities and reveals the limits of international cooperation on readmission. The study analyses the case of Morocco, which has become a crucial player in controlling migration between Europe and Africa, and how it has skilfully leveraged its cooperation with the EU to achieve its own goals. It advocates for a more balanced approach to migration management that takes into account human rights and the need for formal migration pathways. It looks into the negative effects of intra-African expulsions on migrants’ human rights and the safety of people on the move and discusses how the physical obstacles to mobility have resulted in violence and social instability, which has led to less safe, orderly, and regular migration within Africa.
Topic:
Human Rights, Migration, Regional Cooperation, Governance, and European Union
Political Geography:
North Africa, Morocco, and Mediterranean

4. Gender-Based Violence in Egypt and Morocco: Politics and Policy-Making

Author:
Dima Rashed and Rabha Allam
Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
IEMed/EuroMeSCo
Abstract:
Violent practices against women are widespread globally. They occur in private quarters and public spaces by persons within a victim’s close circles, including family members, as well as members of the larger society. Over the past half a century, the international community has taken steps to eliminate violence against women (VAW). The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, has defined discrimination against women as “…any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field” (UN Women, n.d.a). In 1993, the United Nations Declaration of Violence against Women took another step by defining acts of violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life (UNGA, 1993). This global engagement with VAW prompted attention on the legislative and policy-making levels, as well as within academic investigations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where patriarchal traditions have endured. The paper focuses on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) directed at women and girls in Morocco and Egypt through a comparative investigation of laws and policies. We probe women’s security over the past two decades and find that while Egypt has experienced progress on fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and economic violence against women, Morocco has advanced on issuing a more progressive Personal Status Code and VAW in the domestic sphere. How can we understand this divergence between two North African countries where Islamic Sharia is the basis of family laws? And how have state-society relations impacted efforts to fight VAW in both countries? We adopt definitions of UN Women on GBV, forms of violence and economic violence. GBV is defined as “harmful acts directed at an individual or a group of individuals based on their gender.” Forms of violence challenging women and girls are defined as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women and girls, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. Violence against women and girls encompasses, but is not limited to, physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family or within the general community, and perpetrated or condoned by the State” (UN Women, n.d.b). Economic violence is defined as a practice that “involves making or attempting to make a person financially dependent by maintaining total control over financial resources, withholding access to money, and/or forbidding attendance at school or employment” (UN Women, n.d.b).
Topic:
Politics, Gender Based Violence, Feminism, and Gender
Political Geography:
Africa, Egypt, and Morocco

5. Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia: A Comparative Perspective on Maghreb Countries Migration Cooperation with their West African Neighbours

Author:
Abdeslam Badre, Irene Schöfberger, and Ekaterina Golovko
Publication Date:
06-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
IEMed/EuroMeSCo
Abstract:
In February 2022, the European Union (EU) and African Union (AU) both committed, in a Joint Vision to works towards an “enhanced and reciprocal partnership for migration and mobility”. Meanwhile the EU is still aspiring to carry into effect the pending New Pact on Migration and Asylum, particularly as part of the fourth objective of the New Agenda for the Mediterranean (“jointly address the challenges of forced displacement and irregular migration and facilitate safe and legal pathways for migration and mobility”). The ability to reach these objectives and to re-impulse cooperation with regards to migration management is conditioned by the cooperation schemes between the EU and its Southern partner countries, and between Southern partner countries themselves. The transition North African countries have experienced from emigrant into transit and destination countries from migrant, marks a turning point in the migratory history of the region. North and West Africa’s demands for ensuring safe and humane migration flows and management continue to be challenged by the continuous influx of sub-Saharan mobility. Against this background, there is a growing need to strengthen South-South, North-South and South-North cooperation by harmonising the management of various aspects related to human mobility, such as synchronising national and regional border management; ensuring the implementation of cross-border migration human rights mechanism; enforcing regional and trans-regional diaspora engagement and the involvement of domestic civil society actors in policy legislation processes. These steps need to be taken in order to ensure due protection of the living conditions of immigrants and people on the move in the region. This Joint Policy Study addresses these considerations through three individual contributions structured in four chapters. The first chapter analyses national and regional policy frameworks in place, looking at three Maghreb countries: Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The second chapter examines the regional and trans-regional relevance of West African diaspora policies. The third part assesses the Algeria-Niger bilateral cooperation in the light of the EU borders’ externalisation process and the last chapter analyses the role of civil society organizations in the policymaking consultations in the Maghreb.
Topic:
Migration, Regional Cooperation, European Union, and African Union
Political Geography:
Algeria, North Africa, West Africa, Morocco, and Tunisia

6. Democratic Change and Urbanisation in the Aftermath of the Arab Revolts: Euro-Mediterranean Cultural Cooperation in Local Urban Development in Morocco and Tunisia

Author:
Hannah Abdullah
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
IEMed/EuroMeSCo
Abstract:
The so-called “Arab Spring” of 2011 emerged from societies that had been suffering the negative consequences of rapid and unplanned urbanisation for over two decades. The political and socioeconomic discontent that spurred the revolts was closely related to the increase in urban poverty and high levels of inequality that came with these developments. In its response to the Arab revolts, the European Union (EU) only engaged marginally with their urban causes, and above all from a technical rather than political perspective. This focus on technical urban solutions was in line with the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) South and its prioritisation of security and stabilisation concerns over democracy promotion. This article analyses how Euro-Mediterranean cultural cooperation programmes, which form an integral part of the EU’s civil society agenda in the region, was an exception by offering a more political response to the urban discontent that spurred the revolts. The focus is on a programme that supported civil society organizations (CSOs) in Tunisia and Morocco in their effort to assert their “right to the city” by formulating cultural solutions to promote democratic and sustainable local urban development. The article examines how the programme sought to strike a balance between the ENP’s stabilisation and democratisation concerns by fostering collaborative relations between CSOs and public authorities, especially at local level. While the two country case studies are not reflective of EU cultural relations with the region as a whole, the analysis points towards possible ways in which cultural cooperation can engage with the complex relationship between democratic change and urbanisation, and how CSOs can become effective partners in this endeavour. At a more theoretical level, the article examines what role the EU’s strategy for cultural relations has played in its wider civil society agenda in the Southern Neighbourhood, and how urban issues have featured in this overlapping policy space.
Topic:
Culture, Social Movement, Urbanization, Democracy, Inequality, Arab Spring, and Urban
Political Geography:
Africa, Morocco, and Tunisia

7. Cooperation with Religious Institutions as a European Policy Tool

Author:
Yasemin El-Menouar, Sergio Altuna, Patrycja Sasnai, and Georges Fahmi
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
IEMed/EuroMeSCo
Abstract:
For at least three decades now religion has been re-entering the public sphere and politics in Europe and globally. Its re-emergence, however, bears little resemblance to the past when the religion-state coupling was unequivocal. Today, in Europe, the values of freedom of religion and belief, free expression and non-discrimination take precedence over any single religion’s domination – at least that is the prevalent aspiration. In the European neighbourhood, major social and political phenomena have acquired an increasingly religious angle: radicalisation – in the words of Olivier Roy – is becoming Islamised, intra and interstate conflicts have a sectarian character, and governments either want to increase their control over religion or the breakdown of local governance is making religious actors more legitimate representatives than the central government. Within EU member states, religion is resurfacing alongside two simultaneous trends: on the one hand, individualised, atomised urban life that requires more spirituality and a reference point to the realities of modernity and diversity; and, on the other, social polarisation around perceptions of secularisation and religions, particularly Islam. This Joint Policy Study takes an institutionalist view of state-religion relations, although religious institutions are defined in a broad sense and encompass both official and unofficial religion. This leaves the field outside of the institutionalised religion-state relations either relatively small or down to individual expressions of religiosity. Institutionalism, so understood, is a view that policy is carried out through and with institutions. This can vary in different aspects: dependence (state-dependent, statecontrolled, independent of states), size, homogeneity, thematic focus, accountability, credibility, and so on. The chapters in the study aim to provide both more generalised overviews and case studies to cover all levels of state-religion relations in Europe and MENA: relations between state and religious institutions in Europe (chapter 1); relations between state and religious institutions in the Maghreb (Tunisia and Morocco in chapter 3); relations between institutions of different religions (the Vatican and al-Azhar in chapter 4); and the role of Muslim religious institutions in advancing a state policy in an EU member state (Germany in chapter 2).
Topic:
Religion, Institutionalism, Secularism, and Theocracy
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Germany, Morocco, Tunisia, and Vatican city