Water Governance in the Mediterranean: Rethinking the role of National Politics and the Union for the Mediterranean

Abstract

[eng] This Master Thesis aims to give an overview of the political dynamics behind the governance of water in the Mediterranean. The core question is how national politics affect the set-up of a regional water governance. To this end, the bulk of this paper aims to analyse the specific policy framework of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), and explore how this showcases the overall governance dynamics of the Euro-Mediterranean region. To do so, I conduct discourse analysis of UfM’s Ministerial Declarations on water and combine it with primary literature and interviews to water and global governance experts. Main result of the analysis is that the interposition of national politics in the water agenda has hindered the creation of a regional governance framework. This research reveals that Mediterranean countries are not interested in setting-up such a framework because they want to preserve their national control over water; because they are afraid of over-complicating the regime if they scale governance up; and because of the lack of flexible and tailor-made regional directives. Despite the several attempts of the UfM to coordinate water governance actions, I argue that it is not an institution entitled to set such a framework but another State-mandated body in a very nationalised and politicised governance system. It remains to be seen whether and how water governance in the Mediterranean will acquire political and institutional stability in the future. Heretofore, my hope is that this research may prove useful in tracing some of the first implications of national politics in the water governance domain.