EU promotion of deep democracy in Egypt after the Arab spring: A missed opportunity?
Egypt is an important strategic country for the EU. Since the inception of the Barcelona process in the mid-1990s, the EU has provided extensive economic and political support to the Mubarak authoritarian regime that supposedly offered security, stability, and economic opportunities to Europe, irres...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2017
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Online Access: | https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/oaiart?codigo=6062571 |
Source: | Revista electrónica de estudios internacionales (REEI), ISSN 1697-5197, Nº. 33, 2017 |
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Summary: |
Egypt is an important strategic country for the EU. Since the inception of the Barcelona
process in the mid-1990s, the EU has provided extensive economic and political support to the Mubarak
authoritarian regime that supposedly offered security, stability, and economic opportunities to Europe,
irrespective of the lack of significant progress in the area of human rights and democracy. The popular
uprisings that led to the Arab Spring in 2011 revealed the limitations, contradictions, and short-termism of
this approach. The EU was caught by surprise, and initially was hesitant as to which side to support. Once
the revolution succeeded, the EU turned into a major supporter of the democratic process. The EU
announced a paradigm shift in its relations with the Southern Mediterranean, a new partnership based in
sustainable and inclusive growth, a greater role for civil society, and a renewed emphasis in human rights
and democratic transformation. The main innovation of the EU’s new approach to the region was the
concept of deep democracy, a new term that generated high expectations. The core objective of our
analysis is to explore to what extent EU policies towards Egypt have been influenced by the supposedly
new paradigm developed by the EU through the concept of deep democracy. As this article has
demonstrated, most changes in EU policies towards the Southern Mediterranean, particularly the
reviewed ENP, are essentially rhetoric, since they do not substantially modify the traditionally top-down
and business-oriented approach that has dominated these relations. |
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