In this interview excerpt, Álvaro de Vasconcelos, co-founder and Director of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IEEI) in Lisbon from 1981 to 2007 and Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) from 2007 to 2012, explains the issues surrounding the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, also known as the Barcelona Process, which was launched in 1995 in Barcelona. He discusses the development of this process towards a Union for the Mediterranean and the relevance of a ‘Euro-Mediterranean regional community’, which he proposed in 2005 following the political upheavals in the countries of North Africa.

In this interview excerpt, Álvaro de Vasconcelos, co-founder and Director of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IEEI) in Lisbon from 1981 to 2007 and Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) from 2007 to 2012, discusses the establishment and aims of the Euro-Latin American Forum, which was set up during the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Communities in 1992 with the aim of boosting relations between the European Union and the ‘Common Market of the South’ (Mercosur or Mercosul).