Brussels, 22/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - The day after the meeting in Brussels of EU foreign ministers, it was the turn of development ministers to meet in Brussels on 22 February. They condemned the bloody suppression of demonstrations in Libya and discussed the wave of revolutionary fervour sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East, agreeing that the EU has an important role to play over the next few months in helping Muslim countries develop.
The revolutions are a combination of uprisings due to social and economic issues, fundamentalist religion and a desire for freedom, but mainly the desire for freedom, explained deputy Hungarian minister Zsolt Nemeth at a press conference, adding that he was from Central Europe, which had experienced the transition to democracy in 1989-90 and what is going on in the Arab world reminds him of the past. He said that the Latvian Commissioner (Andris Piebalgs) had the same impression. Back then, he said, the West was uncomfortable about developments in Central and Eastern Europe. He added that the EU's role would decide the direction taken by the movements and the EU could ensure that they moved towards genuine democracy. He said the Council of Ministers agreed that the EU should “speak out more bluntly, just it did when addressing dictators to the east of Europe, like Lukashenko, who got what he deserved”. Commissioner Andris Piebalgs pointed out that the big issue in North Africa and the Middle East is jobs and the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt were due to the lack of political reform and the huge unemployment among young people. (A.N./transl.fl)