identity factors: ‘As soon as one leaves behind the ideological register of general categorisations, one discovers the profusion of differences, distinctions and oppositions on which every society is made up.’32 It has been the contention of this chapter that more attention needs to be paid to the implications for regional initiatives of differences and oppositions within states over the identity of political communities. It is unlikely that a region-wide initiative such as the current Union for the Mediterranean will gain meaningful momentum unless the projects and various processes it engenders gain positive impetus from the national identity debates and struggles that shape the politics of participating states inside and outside the EU. The furthering of a sense of Mediterranean identity, of cultural dialogue, of educational exchange, of common interests among citizens of the states of the Mediterranean area may have significant social, economic, cultural and political outcomes in the future. Yet the political engines of integration lie primarily, although clearly not exclusively, at the hearts of polities where lively contestation on the nature and fate of the national political community drives political struggle. The main contours and pace of the regional integration story in the modern era have so far been largely determined, and will perhaps continue to be determined, by identity struggles (and consensuses) over the character, direction and policies of states in the area. However, ongoing existential conflict between groups in the region, a significant democratic deficit in many states of the region and within EU institutions, potentially inconsistent visions of the Mediterranean emerging from national identity debates in EU and non-EU Member States and a vicious cycle of non-integration all constitute important dimensions of disconnect between these national struggles and regional initiatives. The launching of the latest Euro-Mediterranean initiative as a ‘Union’ has arguably highlighted these lines of disconnect, while upping the symbolic stakes.
32. Euro-Med Report, ‘Dialogue between Peoples and Cultures in the Euro-Mediterranean Area’, – Report by the High-Level Advisory Group established at the Initiative of the President of the European Commission, issue no. 68, 2 December 2003; quoted in Kalypso Nicolaidis and Dimitri Nicolaidis, ‘The Euro-Med beyond Civilisational Paradigms’ in Emanuel Adler, Federica Bicchi, Beverly Crawford and Raffaella del Sarto (eds.), The Convergence of Civilizations: Constructing a Mediterranean Region (London: University of Toronto Press, 2006), p. 362.
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