A N A LY S I S PEACE AND SECURITY FRANCE’S MEDITERRANEAN POLICIES Ambitious initiatives but lack of momentum? Didier Billion June 2020 • The first contemporary Mediter­ranean partnership was launched in 1995 as the Barcelona Process. The original­ity of the partnership resided in an action philosophy incorporat­ing the economic, environmen­tal, political, social and security parameters. However, it’s limits were quickly reached. • The Union for the Mediter­ranean(UfM) was created in 2008 to give new political momentum to Mediterranean cooperation. Three problems prevented this: the non-reso­lution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the financial crisis of the EU and the political instabil­ity in Arab countries since 2011. • There is a fear that in the future Arab states will favour partners such as the United States, Russia or China. In this context France initiated the Summit of the Two Shores.