University of Tehran Published jointly with Iranian World Studies Association Journal of World Sociopolitical Studies 2588-3119 8 3 2024 07 01 EU and the Mediterranean Bazaar: Mediterranean Competition and Multiplication of Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation Initiatives 529 558 97611 10.22059/wsps.2024.372361.1415 EN Ali Sabbaghian Assistant Professor of Regional Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Rajdeep Singh PhD Student of European Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran 0000-0003-1218-134X Journal Article 2024 02 08 EU has developed a plethora of initiatives to deal with the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. From Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) and the so-called Barcelona Process to European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) and Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), different regional programs have been implemented in the Mediterranean region. The diversity and increasing number of countries involved have led to a feel of Mediterranean bazaar with diverging directions. Thus, one question appears to remain unanswered: In what ways have ideational foundations affected the EU initiatives in the Southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea? The research hypothesis states that differences in ideational foundations of the Mediterranean powers, namely, France, Italy and Spain, in moments of crisis have led to the multiplication of initiatives and brought in at times conflicting arrangements between the north and the south of the Mediterranean Sea. The research question was answered under the Constructivist Institutionalism using the qualitative methodology of content analysis.  Research findings reveal that when confronted with moments of self-doubt (crisis), each of the Mediterranean powers has effectuated an institutional change according to its established ideas and cognitive filters. https://wsps.ut.ac.ir/article_97611_c4f8c8ff0a8df1eb2bd4990ab9b9de5f.pdf