ABSTRACT
The history of the relations between the European Union (EU) and its Southern Mediterranean neighbours is several decades long. Over the years a set of EU foreign and security policy practices have emerged that more or less explicitly aim at creating a stable and secure neighbourhood for the Union (Bremberg 2016). This repertoire of practices has given rise to different EU policies throughout several decades, the most comprehensive up until now being the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The ENP has had economic goals primarily, even if the goals of security and democracy also have been present. As is discussed in this chapter, there has always been a tension in policies and expected outcomes between the goals of security, economic development and democracy promotion. The EU and its member states have often sought to find ways to cooperate practically with authoritarian regimes in the Southern Mediterranean in order to maintain stability rather than pushing for democratic reforms in countries in North Africa and the Middle East (van Hüllen 2015).
