The members of the network are drawn from the thirty-nine member-countries of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP), the European Union's comprehensive policy for its relations with the Southern Mediterranean region.

There are currently fifty-eight member institutes,  thirty observer institutes and two international associate members. Of these ninety institutes, sixty-eight are signatory to the service contract with the European Commission, MED-2005/109-063, which entitles them to participate in the full scope of EuroMeSCo's activities. The network's membership is designed to reflect the national composition of the EMP and its objective of ensuring equality between members within the Partnership. EuroMeSCo functions both as an official confidence-building measure within the EMP and as a source of analytical expertise in the policy and security fields with which it is concerned.

The network's activities are policy and security-oriented, both because it can best contribute towards the goals of the EMP in these areas and because they correspond to the primary interests of its members. However, EuroMeSCo's themes for research and debate must also reflect its duty to reinforce confidence amongst its members and within the EMP. It therefore seeks to establish consensus over its research agenda and to ensure the fullest possible participation of member institutes in the research and discussion process.

The network can, of course, take advantage of the research of individual institutes as well. In such cases, institutes within the network may engage in research topics on their own account or in conjunction with other, interested member institutes. However, they do so in their individual capacities and not in the name of the network, even though the results may be of interest to the network as a whole and to the EMP.