Since its inception, the political and security dialogue of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) was described as an instrument for the achievement of a Euro-Mediterranean area of peace and stability. However, almost 10 years on from the Barcelona conference, the dialogue has produced few practical results. Current attempts by the EU to engage the Mediterranean partners in its Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) should be seen as an attempt to revive the political and security dialogue and to depart from the purely consultative nature of relations in the political and security area towards the adoption of concrete projects of mutual interest, thus increasing the confidence among the partners.

It is from the prism of practical co-operation in confidence-building measures that this paper looks at civil protection. The paper begins with a presentation of basic facts about civil protection and then traces the evolution of intra-EU co-operation in the field. It then assesses the existing project of co-operation on civil protection between the EU and the Mediterranean Partners in the context of the EMP and concludes with an analysis of the prospects for future co-operation in this field.