The European Council on Foreign Relations

Welcome to the ECFR Middle East & North Africa Programme

The Middle East and North Africa programme was established in early 2011 in response to the dramatic protests across the region that became known as the ‘Arab Spring.’ Europe, like most of the world, was unprepared for these events, which have demonstrated the urgent need for the EU to re-think fundamentally its relationship with its neighbours across the Mediterranean. The MENA region stretches across the entire southern neighbourhood of Europe, and its fortunes are as crucial to us as our support is to their future.

ECFR seeks to identify opportunities for Europe to make a real difference in the MENA region at this crucial time, by supporting democratic transition in the countries where revolutions took place and using its influence to press for real change where autocratic regimes have remained in power. It advocates European engagement with and promotion of wide-ranging reform in the region, including in the spheres of politics, economic development, trade and migration. ECFR's strategy includes involving the people of the MENA region in a meaningful dialogue about their future and the part Europe can play in it, and making sure marginalised sectors of society such as the region's women are included in this dialogue.

The MENA programme builds on ECFR's long-standing engagement with the region, for example in our joint work with FRIDE on human rights in North Africa. To date, it has published three policy briefs, based on ECFR study visits to Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, and a policy memo on China’s response to the Arab revolutions.