Objective
To provide the 5+5 Defense Ministers with an instrument of thinking , analysis and forecasting, allowing them explore any issue related to the Western Mediterranean, aiming at reinforcing the common act of the partners, to facilitate the development of a new conception for regional security by providing the experts and researchers from Europe and the Maghreb with a space to exchange experiences and works on solutions to common security problems, to contribute towards the strengthening of confidence-building measures by producing an objective research activity, highlighting the real causes of insecurity and the key issues and strategic challenges facing the Western Mediterranean.
Background
Within the 5+5 dynamics as a precursor political framework, the states of the two banks of the western Mediterranean proposed to consolidate their partnership in the field of security in the western Mediterranean. Hence, the 5+5 Defense initiative materialised by the declaration of intent was officially launched by the ten ministers of defense (Algeria, Spain, France, Italy, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Mauritania, Portugal and Tunisia) in Paris on the 21st of December 2004.