The post-Barcelona Declaration experience since November 1995 suggests that there are many significant obstacles to co-operative Euro-Med relations. The paper looks at key theoretical or normative issues of significance or controversial for Euro-Med current relations, so as to build common languages. Common languages should help the Euro-Med parties to identify disagreements and points of convergence or conceptual overlapping.

The paper focuses on the particularly sensitive issues of democracy and human rights and the status of these issues within the EMP. It deals with the concept of democracy in present day Arab political culture and the rationale of Western democracy promotion policies. It examines nexuses between democracy and security, such as democracy and economic development, democracy and peace, democracy and nationalism, so as to identify opportunities to create a common language that may allow the EMP partners to discover common ground and thereby agree on shared norms.