Synchronising findings from both PREVEX-generated and external research outputs, this policy brief presents three key lessons from the analysis of the EU’s measures to prevent violent extremism (PVE) across the MENA, the Maghreb/Sahel and the Balkans region.
The first lesson is the need for a holistic EU-specific general PVE approach that streamlines across the EU’s different activity realms – PVE seems to work best when it merges faith-based efforts with rising economic developmental horizons, and when those are streamlined alongside security-based applications of law enforcement. The second lesson is the need for a strong re-calibration of attention as to what serves as the most pertinent VE threat stemming from the Balkans. PREVEX research findings shows that the primary VE threat emanates from both ethnonationalist and religious radical violence, emphasising the need for a realignment of attention of EU policy makers. The third and last lesson concerns the EU’s policy adaptation to distinct societal realities in its PVE efforts. In predominantly Muslim countries and societies of the MENA and the Maghreb/Sahel, PVE efforts seem to be most successful when they are clearly premised upon broad faith-based considerations. In contrast, EU PVE efforts that overlook faith-based considerations often seem to be limited in their impact upon the Muslim societies where they are applied.
