Concluding Reflections: Decolonising Knowledge on Euro–Mediterranean Relations

In light of Europe’s amnesia about its colonial past in the Mediterranean, this conclusion draws three key reflections from this collection. First, how can Europe unlearn its underlying assumptions about MENA countries in order to learn how much Europe actually owes the Arab world? Europe clearly lacks a much-needed “openness” to learn, but with what consequences and for whom? Second, undoing coloniality will require a shift in recurring patterns of hierarchy and subordination, of domination and exploitation and the continual reproduction of these. Third and finally, what might a reconstruction of relations look like? One place to start is to turn our gaze towards “Arabpolitanism”: the manner in which people in the Mediterranean continue to decolonise Europe’s past. Can past and present models be reset in order to address the everyday lifeworlds of the people of the Mediterranean in the future? This will require going beyond atonement towards a redressing and proactive re-balancing in future Euro–Mediterranean relations.