The European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) and its Implementation in the Southern Mediterranean. The Case of Egypt. ZEI Discussion Papers C170, 2007

Demmelhuber, Thomas. (2007) The European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) and its Implementation in the Southern Mediterranean. The Case of Egypt. ZEI Discussion Papers C170, 2007. [Discussion Paper]

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Abstract

The promotion of democracy as an internationally recognised foreign policy objective is in critical condition. The continuing war on terror in Afghanistan and elsewhere, the on-going civil war in Iraq which shows no signs of ending, the prompt isolation of a democratically elected Palestinian government and the vivid «duckling» of the West in terms of the unsolved democracy vs. stability dilemma have damaged the credibility of democracy promotion in the Southern Mediterranean. The act of promoting democracy is currently outdated. During conversations with government officials and civil society actors in the Southern Mediterranean alike, reactions of denial are most likely when talking about political conditionality, e.g. from the EU in promoting the rule of law, good governance, and democracy in its Southern neighbourhood. At least rhetorically, rule of law, good governance, and democratic reform processes are based on a common interest but both parties are following a differing agenda of objectives on the ground. EU-Egyptian relations are deeply shaped by a differing understanding of democratic reform with both actors following an agenda of different priorities. Regarding this perception gap the following paper aims at analysing a Southern perspective (here: the case of Egypt) on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in order to draw conclusions for the EU’s foreign policy objectives. In particular, after being in place for more than two years, a critical assessment of the reception of this new EU initiative is of utmost importance if one only considers more than 15 months of difficult negotiations for the EU-Egyptian «Action Plan».(2) What are the reasons on behalf of Egypt for these obstacles compared to the smooth negotiations for the «Action Plans» with Morocco, Tunisia or Jordan? Analysing the Southern perspective on the ENP, keeping in mind the complexity among Arab Mediterranean partner countries (MPC), one is obliged to do specific case studies for all involved MPCs in order to find commonalities among them and eventually get the grand picture for the Southern perspective. The scope of this paper would not be sufficient for such an extensive study. Following the ENP statute of multiple and differentiated bilateralism this paper focuses solely on the Egyptian perspective.

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