Brussels, 26/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - Invited by the International Management Group (IMG) to take stock of how European affairs are being conducted given the “post-crisis challenges facing the Euro-Mediterranean area”, the former French foreign minister, Hubert Védrine, drew a severe picture, in Brussels on Wednesday 24 April. He spared neither the countries of the region nor Europe, nor the international community. In his view, the latter does not or no longer exists except “intermittently when the five permanent members of the Security Council agree” on a matter.
The Palestinian issue, Védrine says, illustrates this failing in the conduct of world affairs, and he finds the international community's ability to react in an appropriate manner to the Arab “revolutions” implausible. He believes the Syrian issue illustrates the failings on the part of the international community to envisage an exit to the crisis, having dragged its feet on the question with Russia when there was still time.
Without coming to any operational or even theoretical conclusions, Védrine mainly set out a series of weak points to which attention should be drawn if one is to get out of the rut in a region that is accumulating crises and conflicts, not only internally but also in the surrounding neighbourhood, to the south (Sahel-Sahara) as in the north. He quotes as an example the European crisis (or “mutation”) on the “institutional, political and economic fronts”, which is not without its impact on the future of a Mediterranean region that is itself undergoing an upheaval that no-one could see coming. The process of democratisation will be “slow and laborious”, said Védrine, asserting that it has never been “an cup of instant coffee” and cannot be a “phenomenon of sudden conversion”. First of all, it is necessary to create a rule of law, and give root to the idea of alternating governance. When it comes to the Arab Spring (a name that he objects to), or the general changes taking place in the world, “all forecasts since the end of the Cold War have been refuted”.
Today, the Mediterranean is dealing with westerners who “have lost control” of world affairs and must share with other emerging powers in a situation of competition that “is more like a free-for-all”. On this subject, Védrine said that “fortunately, the Chinese have not yet attempted universal Chinese values”.
Thus, Europe appears to Védrine to be somewhat marginalised - less attractive - given the southern countries which are in the phase of taking over their destinies. He said “paternalism no longer works” and the southern rim countries are not under any obligation to uphold those relations - “they have the choice to do so, or not”. The relationship requires new prospects which are singularly lacking at the moment. Furthermore, as Védrine sees it, aid alone “does not form the foundation for a relationship”. The responsibility of the southern rim countries is also in question, especially given the weakness of integration. The Union of the Arab Maghreb does not exist, the former minister states categorically.
“We have failed”, the Moroccan ambassador to the EU, Menouar Alem, admits, adding: “We need to assert ourselves in the face of Europe”. The ambassador also underlines the need for prospects. These are necessary given the “incommensurable challenges” facing the region - political, economic and social including immigration and security. He calls for the adoption of a well-thought-out approach, without confusing all the countries of the region but taking each one separately according to its specific characteristics. In his view, all levers exist at bilateral as well as regional and sub-regional level in order to find the most appropriate solutions. The EU “must not treat the region like a homogenous bloc at the risk of levelling down the region to its lowest denominator”.
Richard Weber, Michael Köhler, Senior Adviser to IMG (and former deputy director general at the Commission), and Maged Mosleh, Egypt's Deputy Ambassador, took the floor to illustrate the relevance of the “differentiated approach”, and also the need to place more store on civil societies. Köhler presented concrete data on the European response to the “revolutions” underway on the south bank of the Mediterranean, while acknowledging there this is taking time and that there are failings but, he stressed, the EU does not always have the choice of its interlocutors - no more today than yesterday when it was to manage relations with Hosni Mubarak or Ben Ali, considered retrospectively as unacceptable. “What shall we tell the Chinese citizens in ten years' time when we frequent their leaders today”, Védrine said.
Benardino Leon, Catherine Ashton's special envoy to the region, confirmed that the EU has “acted on request” and that he does not agree when people say it has lagged behind. In his responses, he appeared constantly on the defensive, sometimes in answer to harsh questions put to him by a room full of many former European senior officials. He confirmed that his attention is focused more on the development of “Islamist” parties in order to bring about their “democratisation”, rather than on the future of Euro-Mediterranean relations. Such an approach, which evidently gives rise to debate within the institutions themselves, Mosleh said, “has not been discussed with us. It comes from Chatham House” (our translation throughout). (FB/transl.jl)