Mediation of the European Union in the Middle East Peace Process

The European Union is one of the most powerful political and economic actors in the world. The EU is based on and promotes principles of conflict prevention and resolution, internally as well as in its external relations. With a great number of political, economic and military instruments at hand and with its presence in more than 130 countries worldwide the EU is in a position to play a proactive role in peacemaking efforts. So, the term “international peace mediation” needs to be qualified when used to describe the role of the EU in the Middle East Peace Process. The aim of this paper is to analyze the EU’s role in the Middle East Peace Process and to research whether the mediation of the EU contributed to the stabilization of the situation in the Middle East. The focus of the research is on the instruments that the EU uses in the international peace mediation, specifically on the instruments it uses in the mediation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict