About Article

Key to the Mediterranean dimension of the European Union’s internal security is the fight against terrorism, which has captivated most of European policy making in recent years. Counter-terrorism initiatives aimed at the Mediterranean region have multiplied, taking the form of technical assistance, funding and training. One striking feature of this recent evolution is the use of first pillar and second pillar instruments to achieve objectives of the EU’s internal security. The development of a foreign policy dimension to the EU’s counter-terrorism policy towards neighbouring countries, in particular, is one of the aspects through which the external dimension of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) has materialized. This article proposes to investigate the input and output dimensions of the EU’s counter-terrorism policy in the Mediterranean. For that purpose, an institutionalist approach casts some light on the weight of history, critical junctures, the role of cultural frame and of the persisting differences between the member states, to build up a common counter-terrorism policy. Then, turning to the second level of analysis, which investigates the ‘external’ actors that are the Mediterranean partners, an overview of counter-terrorism cooperation reveals that, whereas multilateral actions have blossomed, the thrust of the cooperation occurs at a bilateral level, mainly between some EU member states and some of their ex-colonial powers.