Brussels, 03/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the EU exerted further pressure on the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, to relinquish power immediately and allow for a rapid and orderly transition to a government of national unity and free and fair elections. Following Catherine Ashton's speech on Wednesday to the European Parliament (EUROPE 10307), heads of state and government from the EU's five biggest countries - Angela Merkel (Germany), Nicolas Sarkozy (France), David Cameron (United Kingdom), Silvio Berlusconi (Italy) and José Luis Zapatero (Spain) - stated in a common declaration published on Thursday 3 February that “the transition process must start now… only a quick and orderly transition to a broad-based government will make it possible to overcome the challenges Egypt is now facing”. The declaration also said that “the Egyptian people must be able to exercise freely their right to peaceful assembly and enjoy the full protection of the security forces. Aggression against journalists is unacceptable.” The European Council on Friday 4 February will also focus on Egypt and the Arab world in general. In the context of Egypt, the EU27 is expected to adopt a declaration (unless there is a change in the situation on the ground), which is expected to strongly resemble the declaration published on Thursday, published by the five biggest EU member states.
The message of the “Five” is almost identical to the message from Ashton, who also told MEPs on Wednesday that “change must come now”. The spokesperson for Ashton explained on Thursday that the fact that the high representative for foreign affairs was not involved in the drafting of the common declaration by Merkel, Sarkozy, Cameron, Berlusconi and Zapatero does not pose any problem at all. The spokesperson emphasised that it is normal that European leaders wish to speak out on what is currently happening in Egypt. The spokesperson added that what counts is that there is a single message conveyed by the European Union, which is clearly the case in this instance. She made it clear that it was not up to the EU to tell the Egyptian authorities when free and fair elections had to take place but it is clear that the election planned for September is too far off. Would the EU be able to impose sanctions against President Mubarak and the leaders of his government if they failed to open the way to democratic change? The spokesperson for Ashton replied: “We are monitoring the situation closely and we will take appropriate measures when necessary”. In a document submitted to the Foreign Affairs Council on Monday 31 January, Germany appealed for a “repetition” of the 2010 general elections as soon as possible. Berlin is also proposing the conclusion of a “partnership for transformation” between the EU and the Arab world, with increased European aid to help push forward political and economic reforms.
“Failure of neighbourhood policy”. On Wednesday, during the debate at the European Parliament with Catherine Ashton, the majority of political groups criticised both the incapacity of European diplomacy to foresee the events in the Arab-Mediterranean world, the absence of an appropriate European response and the ambivalent support from Europe to demonstrators and their cause. Many MEPs called for a re-examination of European neighbourhood policy (ENP) in the Mediterranean, in light of its apparent failure. Speaking on behalf of the EPP, José Ignacio Salafranca appealed for a “profound and strategic rethink on how our neighbourhood policy should be interpreted”. Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE) said that he was “disappointed to see Europe committing exactly the same mistakes it had done in 1989” during the fall of the Communist dictators in Eastern Europe. The former Belgian prime minister asked: “Why has Ms Ashton and Europe responded so feebly? Why is it still not giving its unreserved support to the masses in the street?”. He also explained that, “the only good European response has come from outside the EU, namely from the Turkish prime minister, Mr Erdogan, who has requested that Mubarak go”. According to Véronique De Keyser (S&D), the EU has committed a “major mistake” in its relations with the Arab-Mediterranean world, “it has supported corrupt regimes in the name of stability, without taking into account social justice and the aspirations of the people for freedom. This mistake must be rectified and now is the time to do it”. She concluded that the EU had failed to understand political Islam and that this is its second fundamental error. Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Greens) is afraid that funds spent by the EU under ENP have been used by regimes to reinforce their power over the people. He framed the following question: “Ms Ashton, tell us where Europe has put the money, tell us where the money in companies controlled by Ben Ali has gone?” Nicole Sinclaire (NI) also expressed her dissatisfaction over the way EU funds have been used in Tunisia. She stated that “if the money had been used for reform, the people would not have rebelled”.
The EP will be voting on a resolution on Egypt during the February plenary session in Strasbourg. (H.B./transl.fl)