This paper offers a critical evaluation of the first twenty years of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM), combining stakeholder survey data with an institutional analysis of PAM’s singularity as a parliamentary organization operating outside a formal intergovernmental executive structure. It combines institutional analysis with original quantitative evidence from survey administered to parliamentarians, government representatives, civil-society actors and academics involved in Mediterranean parliamentary cooperation. The paper examines how these actors evaluate PAM’s added value, effectiveness and limits.

The article also addresses PAM’s institutional singularity as a parliamentary organization not paired with a council of ministers or another intergovernmental executive body. Building on the literature on international parliamentary institutions and parliamentary diplomacy, it explores whether this design enhances flexibility and responsiveness, or instead weakens implementation capacity and links to state decision-making. To do so, the paper reconstructs PAM’s institutional origins and evolution and situates its trajectory within broader debates on non-executive parliamentary assemblies. The analysis is presented in light of the preliminary findings submitted by the author to the PAM Plenary in Budva, Montenegro, on 7 May 2026. PAM officially describes itself as an international organization established in 2005, and its 20th plenary is scheduled in Budva in May 2026.