Power audit of EU – North Africa relations

North Africa’s ‘Arab Spring’ is a huge opportunity for Europe, but Europe is in danger of fumbling it.

In 2011 the democratic wave sweeping the Arab world looked unstoppable. Not so in 2012: Egypt, Libya and Tunisia were all suffering from post-revolutionary hangovers – Algeria and Morocco might have been only playing at reform. Security and economic problems abounded.

Europe had the real ability to help more open and dynamic societies take root in North Africa, benefitting Europe as well as their neighbours across the Mediterranean. But absorbed by the economic crisis it was not delivering on its promised support.

The scale of the post-revolutionary challenges in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia was daunting, but for countries like France, Italy and Spain, substantial interests were at stake: trade, investment, energy, North African immigrant communities and security. In ECFR's ‘Power audit of EU-North Africa relations’, Nick Witney and Anthony Dworkin argued that the EU and its key member states must:

•Go beyond simple ‘more for more’ conditionality and take a strategic view of the region and their relations with Europe.

•Promote intra-regional cooperation on issues such as developing the vast potential of solar power and trade.

•Help North African states tackle instability in the Sahel and other security concerns that also affect EU members.

•Instead of acting like a giant NGO, the EU and its members need to treat North African countries as partners rather than clients. Revolutions need political, not technocratic, responses.