-Several years ago I was asked by CEPS (Center for European Policy Studies) to prepare a report on the Mediterranean economy as a contribution to a collective work1 • The first question I asked myself was whether to include in my report those Medijerranean countries which were members of the EU. The same question could be addressed today having been asked to report on the EU and Mediterranean countries. Does the latter concept strictly refer to non-EU members? Of course not and I want from this podium to attract your attention to the widely-spread confusion being made when dealing with the EU's external relations between Mediterranean countries and what is actually the Maghreb, the Mashrek, Israel and Turkey. This leaves out not only some EU member countries, but ex-Yugoslavia, Albania, Cyprus and Malta. But in order to get a sense of the reasons of the present excijement, if not alarm, manifested by public officials when dealing with this part of the EU's internal and external periphery it us useful to compare basic data off all Medijerranean neighbouring countries.

Several years ago I was asked by CEPS (Center for European Policy Studies) to prepare a report on the Mediterranean economy as a contribution to a collective work1 • The first question I asked myself was whether to include in my report those Medijerranean countries which were members of the EU. The same question could be addressed today having been asked to report on the EU and Mediterranean countries. Does the latter concept strictly refer to non-EU members? Of course not and I want from this podium to attract your attention to the widely-spread confusion being made when dealing with the EU's external relations between Mediterranean countries and what is actually the Maghreb, the Mashrek, Israel and Turkey. This leaves out not only some EU member countries, but ex-Yugoslavia, Albania, Cyprus and Malta. But in order to get a sense of the reasons of the present excijement, if not alarm, manifested by public officials when dealing with this part of the EU's internal and external periphery it us useful to compare basic data off all Medijerranean neighbouring countries.