Eduard Soler i Lecha and Elina Viilup, Research Fellows, CIDOB

Date of publication: 06/2011

On an early morning flight at the end of January, heading to Brussels to discuss with his colleagues the EU’s response to popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, the Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt tweeted that the issue at stake was whether the EU can really be a force for reforms and the rule of law in its neighbourhood. A Joint Communication of the European Commission and the External Action Service, published on 25 May, aims to address this question by proclaiming the need for a “A new response to a changing neighbourhood”. This was also one of the issues on the agenda of the meeting of the EU Heads of State and Government on 24 June, and will soon be addressed by the European Parliament. Is it going to make nay difference this time?

The warm and mostly uncritical relations maintained for decades by the European governments with most of their authoritarian governments in North Africa and the Middle East, together with the hesitant response when the first protests erupted, have seriously compromised the EU’s credibility. In the Eastern Neighbourhood, which comprises countries from the Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, the EU’s attractiveness has also been eroded. (...)

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