150 Andrew Geddes
The broader strategic context at regional level for EU-MENA migration
relations was provided by two settings. First, the Barcelona Process cover-
ing f ifteen member states and fourteen Mediterranean partner countries
(Bicchi 2007). The Barcelona Process has since evolved into the Union for the
Mediterranean. Second, the European neighbourhood policy, including the
ten MENA partner countries that are this chapter’s focus. The instigation of
the Barcelona Process in 1995 placed relations with MENA countries on a
sounder footing, with political and f inancial structures in place that could
sustain a broad dialogue about migration. The relationship has matured
but its migration-related components have, thus far, tended to ref lect
EU concerns about migration and asylum f lows from and across MENA
countries, with an emphasis on the development of enhanced border-
control capacity. This could be seen as positive for EU states, at least in
the short-term. The benef its for MENA countries are more questionable,
although the EU’s ‘partnership’ approach does include a more advanced
level of association between MENA partner countries and the EU, albeit
with a differentiated approach to ref lect the particular circumstances of
individual MENA countries.
The evolution of the external dimension of EU action can now be traced
in relationship to the more recent focus on mobility partnerships as a key
component of the EU’s international-migration relations. Early steps were
taken in the late 1990s when the High Level Working Group (HLWG) on
Migration and Asylum Management was created as a ‘cross-pillar’ body
within the EU. It was cross-pillar, in EU jargon, because it had implications
for foreign and security policy, justice and home affairs, and trade and
development, as well as for the units/departments that must seek to manage
these policies. The HLWG arose from a Dutch government initiative. Within
the Dutch government the responsibility for international migration and
refugee strategies resided with the foreign-affairs ministry rather than the
justice ministry that largely shaped international-migration and refugee
strategies. The EU approach thus ref lected this Dutch attempt to ‘integrate’
the internal and external dimensions of migration policy.
The HLWG produced Action Plans in 1999 for Afghanistan, Albania,
Iraq, Morocco, Somalia and Sri Lanka. These sought to coordinate the EU
response and bring the interests of security, foreign policy and develop-
ment to bear on the protection of human rights, democratisation and
constitutional governance, social and development policy, the combating
of poverty, conf lict prevention and resolution, asylum, and irregular migra-
tion. The HLWG was composed of mainly Justice and Home Affairs off icials
with relatively little experience of dealing with third countries or with