After being elected for a second mandate on the 18th of July 2024, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged to create a new portfolio for the Mediterranean. The idea was especially welcomed by Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela who had suggested it in the first place. Von der Leyen kept her promise as she nominated a Commissioner for the region two months later. But how did the European Union’s Mediterranean policy evolve until now and what made the region so important to gain an own Commissioner and Directorate-General?
A neglected region
The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership was launched in 1995 at the Barcelona Conference. It has operated in the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy since 2004 with ten partners altogether, Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria (suspended since 2011) and Tunisia. The framework was reviewed in 2015 and has now three more priorities besides the promotion of democracy, rule of law, respect for human rights and social cohesion: economic development for stabilisation, security, and migration and mobility. Meanwhile, the governments of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership set up the Anna Lindh Foundation in 2005 to foster intercultural dialogue in the region. Three years later, the Union for the Mediterranean was founded at the Paris Summit as an intergovernmental organisation of twenty-seven European Union Member States and sixteen Mediterranean partner countries (Syria also suspended there) to further promote dialogue and cooperation with the region.
The most recent official document directly about the region was the Joint Communication on a renewed partnership with Southern Neighbourhood in 2021 which proposed a New Agenda for the Mediterranean for the period of 2021-2027. It suggested actions in five key areas: human development, good governance and the rule of law; resilience, prosperity and digital transition; peace and security; migration and mobility; and green transition with focus on climate resilience, energy and environment. The budget is provided by the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument replacing the European Neighbourhood Instrument after the period of 2014-2020. As migration predominantly affects the Mediterranean, the Pact on Migration and Asylum adopted in 2024 despite all the controversies surrounding it, even if only indirectly, but concerns the region as well. To put it mildly, it was not well-received, and has been criticized across the political spectrum, with many Members of the Parliament seemingly agreeing to it, because it was supposedly better than not having any deal at all.
Even though the Union for the Mediterranean has held an annual Regional Forum since 2015 bringing together the Foreign Ministers of the organisation and the High Representative of the European Union, in spite of, or more likely because of the various crises and their consequences which overshadowed the Mediterranean, Josep Borrell started to convene and chair Ministerial Meetings with the Foreign Ministers of the Southern Neighbourhood from 2019. In 2021, they focused on climate change, and a year later, the repercussions of Russia’s war in Ukraine were the main topic. If the aim was to show to the countries of the region that they are not left behind, the plan failed in 2023 when the meeting was cancelled due to the war in Gaza.
A reliable candidate
On the 17thof September 2024, Ursula von der Leyen did what she had promised: she proposed a Commissioner for Mediterranean. Croatian Dubravka Suica was born in 1957 and started her career as Councilor of the Dubrovnik City Council in 1997. Afterwards, she held the position of Councilor of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County Assembly between 1998 and 2001, as well as between 2006 and 2009. She worked once again as Councilor of the Dubrovnik City Council between 2009 and 2015. In the meantime, she was also Mayor of Dubrovnik between 2001 and 2009, and a Member of the Croatian Parliament between 2000 and 2011. She became Vice-President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe in 2004 and served as such until 2014. From 2012, she worked as Vice-President of the Croatian Democratic Union for four years, and Chair of their Committee on Foreign Affairs and European Affairs for seven years. She was also a Member of the European Parliament and Head of the Croatian European People’s Party delegation between 2013 and 2019. She has been European Commission Vice-President for Democracy and Demography since 2019, and Vice-President of EPP as well as Vice-Chair of the group in the European Parliament since 2022. Having already worked alongside Ursula von der Leyen for the last cycle, it is safe to say that Suica does not have much to worry about during her upcoming hearing in the European Parliament.
A meaningful portfolio
Ursula von der Leyen’s mission letter to Dubravka Suica reveals what the Commission President intended for her to do during the new cycle. First and foremost, to develop a New Pact for the Mediterranean, where she seems to get the upper hand over the High Representative as she will lead the work. She will also be in charge of the Trans-Mediterranean Energy and Clean Tech Cooperation Initiative along with the Commissioner for Energy. Second, to take a more strategic approach to the Southern Neighbourhood, where she will have more of a supporting role compared to the High Representative on the European Union’s Middle East Strategy and the implementation of the Gulf Strategy. Demography as the third mission only makes sense due to Dubravka Suica herself taking into account that she served as Commissioner for Democracy and Demography during the 2019-2024 cycle. That way, she can continue what she had been working on and now deal with the implementation of the Demography Toolbox. The importance of this set of policy tools for managing demographic change cannot be denied as we live in a Europe of rapidly aging societies. Regular migration happens to be one of the options to deal with this.
Proposing a Commissioner and a Directorate-General for the Mediterranean can be considered as a good step on the way to make up for neglecting the region compared to recent crises, but actual developments need to be made to really evolve the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. Even if other issues are likely to still take center stage in the coming years.