The Barcelona Process within the External Relations of the European Union (The Contribution of Spain)

The Barcelona Process represents the European Union's effort to define complex and coherent strategy towards the countries of the Mediterranean region. Mutual relations have been gradually developed from the 1960s; nevertheless only particular initiatives were undertaken with the aim to deal with the specific aspects of the relations. With regard to the development of the European Communities and considering events on the international scene it was necessary to define more complex strategy that would comprise not only economic aspects but also political, security, social and cultural aspects. The introduction of the thesis addresses to defining and arrangement of the external relations of the European Communities/European Union. Then it deals with the development of mutual relations until 1995 according to every decade, in which there are mentioned and described initiatives and activities of EC/EU in the Mediterranean region as well as events on the international scene that had significant impact on the shaping of the agenda. Year 1995 represents a break-through because of the fact that during the first Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, held in Barcelona on 27 - 28 November 1995, the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership was created and we are talking about the starting point of the..