ATTITUDE OF EUROPEAN UNION TOWARDS MIDDLE EAST AND NORTHERN AFRICA SINCE 1990

This article aims to introduce and analyze European Neighborhood Policy towards Middle East and Northern Africa since 1990s. Historically, Mediterranean region has always been very important for European Union in terms of trade, culture, and last but not least the regional stability. Nowadays, European Union cooperates with these countries through the instrument of European Neighborhood Policy. The first comprehensive instrument for the cooperation of European Union with the South was Euro-Mediterranean Partnership established in 1995. In 2008 during French Presidency of the Council of European Union, French president Nicolas Sarkozy declared the intention to deepen the mutual cooperation with Middle East and northern Africa through establishment of Union for Mediterranean. Four year later, it seems that Union for Mediterranean is not as effective tool as it was expected. Many countries of Middle East and northern Africa have had the experience of Arab revolutions that in some cases turned into serious armed conflicts. The attitudes of EU member states towards these conflicts have been rather divided. In result, European Union has not been able to develop a clear response to these events.