This chapter sketches out a summary of the challenges facing EU engagement in the Southern Neighborhood as discussed throughout the volume. It suggests key ways the EU might address the engagement deficit with the Southern Neighborhood, including reexamining the principles of conditionality and sanctions. The chapter advances a two-pronged approach dealing with poor socioeconomic conditions and stabilizing conflicts. The chapter also highlights a multitude of challenges within the EU institutions and European borders, including problems of past foreign policy formulation, arms export policy, and other bureaucratic shortcomings. In the era of Covid-19, the prospects for change in the status quo look rather diminished short of any further existential crises and upheaval in the Mediterranean.
Rethinking the EU Approach