The countdown for EXPO 2015 opening continues, catching the attention of media. But EXPO is not the only “event” of 2015. Indeed, the twentieth anniversary of the Barcelona Conference falls this year: in November 1995 it launched the Euromediterranean Partnership, an important community policy.

An historical break for the relationship between the EU and the Sub-Mediterranean countries, aimed at promoting the development of South-Mediterranean countries basing on three pillars: economy, society and culture, as well as on a system of relations resembling a “bicycle wheel”. The European Union is its core and, after undersigning the Association Agreements with the South-Mediterranean countries which subscribed the Barcelona Declaration, they would become the “spokes”. A one-on-one relationship between each South-Mediterranean country and the European Union based on equal dignity and joint responsabilty of the political stability and the economic and social development of the Mediterranean macro-region.

Among the steps of the Barcelona Process, also the creation of an Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area, that was to be opened in 2010, actually open only between the EU and Tunisia in 2008. A far-reaching policy making the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership an instrument to face two basic problems of the South Shore: economic gap and demographic growth. These themes are still very topical. Perhaps, a little perspective has been lost in the meantime?