In the Euro-Mediterranean region where people have long suffered from conflicts and disagreements, it is crucial to find conflict prevention policies that are based on co-ownership, thereby making local populations actors in a cooperation process. In spite of the fact that conflict prevention is contemplated in the Barcelona declaration, and further reinforced in subsequent statements, the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) has shown no movement towards the co-ownership of conflict prevention policies.

This report analyses the different perceptions in Europe and the southern Mediterranean as regards security within the framework of the EMP. Based on this analysis, it debates the issue of ownership and how it could impact upon the evolution of Euro-Mediterranean conflict prevention policies.