The EU’s “comprehensive” approach to security in the Mediterranean links together economic liberalization, democracy promotion, social cooperation, and strategic objectives. In practice, the EU has failed to fully implement its own declared commitment to attack the underlying causes of instability emanating from the Mediterranean. Notwithstanding the limitations to EU policies, criticism of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership has commonly failed adequately to recognize the evolution in European approaches to security in the Mediterranean. Wholesale dismissals of EU efforts are unjustified; a more legitimate pre-occupation relates to the challenge of better articulating linkages between different policy domains so as to realize the full potential of European strategies.