Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

This chapter highlights the context of the neighbourhoods issue. This is an uneasy one, because globalisation has become a dominant paradigm. What need would then scientists and decision-makers have to pay attention to neighbours, when the global world is at stake and within reach? Yet, we give the factors that explain the rise of the regionalisation –i.e. the neighbourhoods– issue, as a complementary pattern, along with the “globalisation” pattern, of the internationalisation of human activities in the last four decades. We also explain why this issue is poorly addressed in scientific literature in particular in Europe. Indeed, the EU is the most advanced experience of regional integration worldwide. But for many reasons, it overlooks relationships with its developing neighbour countries. We assume here that Europe and its neighbours constitute one major region. Despite unrest and wars in these neighbourhoods, we assume that they offer more opportunities than threats. We provide a territorial analysis of these, showing the tough methodological challenges we had to overcome when it comes to access to reliable data and geometries delineation, which are indispensable if one wants to draw an overall vision of this region.

This chapter provides a profile of Europe’s neighbouring territories. It highlights the role of transport and energy networks, which draw the delineation of the region. Europe is the centre of this area, and dominates the exchanges in a core-periphery pattern with its neighbours. Yet, we show that the European influence in the region is declining, especially in the Middle East, and in Eastern Europe where Russia is recreating its former area of influence thanks to its Eurasian customs union. What prospective can be figured out? The neighbourhoods offer key opportunities to Europe in terms of workforce, markets and business opportunities. Energy, too, is a major field of potential cooperation and win-win opportunities with the neighbours; but it could also prove worrisome if we cannot implement collectively the energy transition –air pollution does not stop at EU borders. Moreover, Europe has to confront many challenges in its neighbourhoods: environmental risks, water scarcity, non-inclusive growth, political unrest. The prerequisite to turn ignorance into cooperation is changing the Europeans’ vision on their neighbours. For the moment, European press pays scant attention to them, as is underlined in the last section.

Like the other chapters dedicated to one specific neighbourhood, this one begins by highlighting the demographic, economic and environmental stakes of the Northern neighbourhood. It raises the following questions: Whom does the Arctic region belong to? In other words, under what condition could the Arctic become an international common good, and what could the role of Europe be in this regard. Then it analyses the opportunities, risks and governance challenges connected to climate change. The chapter ends with strategic recommendations: as a difficulty emerges from the fact that the European part of the Northern neighbourhood belongs to various European territorial cooperation programmes, this calls for a more unified and ambitious EU strategy on this neighbourhood. Moreover, we emphasize that Russia is one of the key stakeholders in the Northern neighbourhood; in particular the Northern Dimension constitutes an important venue for a better dialogue with the Russian neighbour.

The chapter outlines the major stakes of this neighbourhood. The Baltic Sea case study gives an on-the-ground insight of the EU-Russia partnership’s reality. It shows that Kaliningrad could be a stumbling block to or a touchstone of cooperation with Russia; that cross-border cooperation is a means to foster ties with Russia; that people mobility is a key issue in the relationship between the EU and its neighbours– all neighbours. Last, it shows that intergovernmental institutions include Russia but not always as efficiently as it could. Another case-study focuses on the Black Sea. The chapter presents innovative research results on city twinning and diplomacy networks, so as to compare the relative influence of EU and Russia on this area. The third case study provides a territorial analysis of the Ukrainian crisis, and explains why the East of the country is taken in a jaws effect. In conclusion, the chapter insists on the role of territorial cooperation, and on the need for a genuine European energy policy because it is indispensable for a genuine partnership between the EU and Russia.

This chapter focuses on four stakes: (i) the huge demographic changes of the Western Balkans, and the mobility issue namely due to a re-bordering process since the end of the Yugoslavian wars ; (ii) the undeniable income rise but also rising social disparities; (iii) an economy which is just recovering with strong geographical fragmentation; (iv) in the field of environment, an early stage regulation and the necessity for a rising international cooperation with the European union. We highlight a still low international openness, an obvious core-periphery pattern in economic flows with the EU, and the various shortcomings of territorial cooperation with the EU. The strategic recommendations insist on the internal fragmentation, which hinders connection to the EU and any perspective of the Western Balkans to become one day “South-East Europe”.

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.

Here we synthesise our findings with a view to address our key questions. First, are Europe and its neighbourhoods really “One Region”? Despite regional integration through transport and energy networks, it has to be acknowledged that there is rather “shallow” than “deep” regional integration and as a matter of fact, rather regional de-integration than integration. Second, how can the Europeans reduce risks and foster opportunities in their neighbourhoods? We summarise several avenues for EU’s action: (i) promoting the territorial approach, which is a competitive advantage for Europe in its neighbourhoods; (ii) ending its dissymmetrical relationship with neighbours and a cooperation driven by aid; (iii) focusing on a few key issues: mobility, energy, agriculture, water and environment; (iv) promoting the Neighbourhood Policy (which is not sufficiently known yet) and the notion of greater region (Europe + neighbourhoods); (v) reformulating the neighbourhoods vision thanks to European policies cross-cutting. Our overarching recommendation would be to design and implement, thanks to a tight cooperation between Europe and its neighbours, a “Neighbourhoods Territorial Agenda”, which would provide all public and private stakeholders with a shared vision of our common region.