Economic development and environmental degradation in Southern Mediterranean countries : an assessment of the EU's financial assistance

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the phenomenon of environmental degradation and its effects on economic development. More specifically, the study focuses on the efforts at economic development of Southern Mediterranean Countries. The EU's Development and Cooperation Policy coordinates a number of programmes, instruments and projects that provide an insight on the EU's efforts to provide aid to these countries to achieve sustainable levels of economic development. The research is reliant upon the contents of the Country Strategy Papers and National Indicative Programmes of the Southern Mediterranean Countries, in order to try to determine the nature of the relationship between economic development and environmental degradation. The information obtained from existing literature, indicates that environmental degradation does have an effect on economic development. In spite of this acknowledgement of the problem, the literature indicates that the focus is more on determining and measuring what causes environmental degradation. In fact, only generalised indicators such as the Human Development Index, is available to determine how much economic development is affected by environmental degradation. A mixed method approach is used to complete the methodology part of the research. This consists of a content analysis of the Country Strategy Papers and National Indicative Programmes, which determines if these documents take into account environmental degradation, and if so to what extent. These results are then represented using descriptive statistics, where graphical representations and frequency measurements highlight trends and patterns in the data.