Empowering the Southern Neighbourhood through research-intense projects: the untapped EU’s public diplomacy potential
Empowering the Southern Neighbourhood through research-intense projects: the untapped EU’s public diplomacy potential

Summary/Abstract: A comprehensive analysis of the EU’s public diplomacy requires a more thorough look into the vast repository of EU instrumentary. EU Framework Programmes-funded projects are among these resourceful tools. The EU’s approach is to purposefully, sustainably, and in a result-oriented manner co-operate directly with research-oriented entities internationally. The versatility of these projects in informing about and advancing EU foreign policy goals, such as resilience-building in the European Southern Neighbourhood (ESN), remains under-researched. This article’s aim is to translate into terminology of public diplomacy the achievements of almost twenty projects funded by 'Framework Programme 7' and 'Horizon 2020' with the involvement of entities located in Morocco and/or Tunisia. This article addresses one dimension of the technoscientific gift’s meaning by analysing the aspirations of the European side to assist the Southern Neighbourhood in its resilience-building efforts. In this study, inspiration is taken from analytical narrative to identify sequential developments that have resulted in the observed collaborative accomplishments. European technoscientific gifts for the Southern neighbours helped the beneficiaries launch new teaching and training opportunities in several higher education and advanced research centres. Looking well beyond the empirical findings, research publications and scholarly co-operation with diverse audiences prove indispensable in analytical understanding the resiliency and versatility of contemporary EU’s public diplomacy practice.

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