Brussels, 11/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - In the late afternoon of Friday 11 February, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in a statement read by his Vice-President Omar Suleimane, that he had resigned and was definitively leaving power after almost 30 years of uninterrupted rule. Power has been handed to the army during the transition.
In a first reaction, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton said she “respects” Mubarak's decision to step down. She also called for “dialogue” and for the formation of a broad-based government. The EU, Ashton stated, shares the desire of the Egyptian people for an orderly transition towards democracy and for free and fair elections to be held.
European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek said that Mubarak's resignation “should facilitate democratic transition without further violence”. He called on the Egyptian army to “pursue a constructive role in the democratisation process”. It is essential that free and fair elections now be prepared, Buzek said, expressing the hope that these historic events are the start of a “renewed partnership between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean, a partnership that will be based on truly shared values: justice and peace, democracy and freedom”.
Uncertainty still over visit. Ashton will travel to Tunis on Monday 14 February before moving on to other countries in the region. “The programme remains somewhat vague for the moment” but stops are planned in Israel and Palestine, her spokesman said on Friday. During her travels, Ashton wants also to visit Cairo (the European Council of 4 February gave her a mandate to travel to Egypt on behalf of the EU) but the Egyptian authorities said on Thursday that, at this time, they did not want to receive any foreign visitors. Will this still be the case after Mubarak's resignation? As we went to press on Friday evening, no further information had been forthcoming.
In a televised speech on Thursday evening, Mubarak was still desperately clinging to power, announcing that he had simply transferred his powers to the vice-president, but remained in post. “I have decided to delegate the powers of the President of the Republic to the Vice-President, in line with provisions in the Constitution”, he said, thereby making Omar Suleiman the country's de facto president. “Transition of power will be from now until September”, he said then. The EU reacted immediately to the disappointment of this speech, though without openly calling for Mubarak to go immediately. The only European leader who dared to speak against Mubarak was Danish Prime Minister Lars Lökke Rasmussen. “Mubarak is history. Mubarak must resign” he said in the early afternoon of Thursday. The reaction from Catherine Ashton was much less forthright. “President Mubarak has not yet opened the way to faster and deeper reforms”, she regretted in a statement released on Thursday evening, immediately after Mubarak's televised speech. She said, too, that it was not for the EU to publicly judge the measures announced by the president. “The demands and expectations of the Egyptian people must be met. It is for them to judge whether the steps announced by President Mubarak fulfil their expectations and aspirations”, she said, adding: “The EU stands ready to help in any way it can”. (H.B./transl.rt)