The EU and Middle East and North Africa [What Think Tanks are thinking]

The European Union held its first ever summit with the Arab League in February, highlighting the growing importance of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in tackling problems such as security, terrorism, migration and energy supply. At their meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, more than 40 leaders from the two blocs discussed issues ranging from ways to fight poverty and reducing irregular migration to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, instability in Libya and wars in Syria and Yemen. The summit's declaration called for stronger economic and political cooperation as well as efforts to support the multilateral, rules-based international order. This note offers links to recent commentaries and reports by major international think tanks on the general problems found within the region and some specific countries. More reports on the region can be found in a previous edition of 'What Think Tanks are Thinking' published in October 2017. The issue of Iran will be discussed in one of the forthcoming issues of the series.