MOSAIC - The training kit for Euro-Mediterranean youth work

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1 The political and institutional context
Figure 1.
The main objective of youth work is to provide opportunities for young people
to shape their own futures.
Peter Lauritzen
1.1 Introduction
Have you ever taken part in a Euro-Med youth exchange? Or maybe you have been a
participant in a seminar at the Council of Europe’s European Youth Centre in Budapest?
Or the names of cities such as Brussels, Strasbourg or Alexandria ring a bell? Have
you ever applied for a visa and waited for hours in the queue? On the television you
hear that the League of Arab States had a meeting, or your country has become a
member of the EU. If you are involved in international youth work, probably many of
these things have happened to you. But what do they actually mean?
This chapter focuses on the institutional framework for youth work in the Euro-
Mediterranean socio-political context. It is an attempt to approach the contested
definitions and concepts of ‘Europe’ and the ‘Mediterranean’, and deconstruct the
politically constructed concept of the ‘Euro-Mediterranean’ as a bilateral and/or a
multilateral political relationship. Referring to the (political) nature of the relationship,
Themes