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EU NEIGHBOURS: INSTABILITY, CORRUPTION, AUTHORITARIANISM
EUobserver
March 28 2014
By Andrew Rettman BRUSSELS - Most countries round the EU's southern and
eastern rim are seeing an increase of instability, authoritarianism,
and corruption, according to European Commission reports published
on Thursday (27 March).
The commissioner in charge of trying to make things better, Stefan
Fuele, said in a statement that "popular aspirations for a better
life and for enjoying basic human rights and fundamental freedoms
remain strong".
He noted the EU spent EURO 2.6 billion on "neighbourhood policy"
states last year, and has earmarked EURO 15.4 billion for 2014 to 2020.
But he added that "reform cannot be imposed from outside".
The situation is stable in Morocco, where Fuele's top recommendation
is to accelerate changes to the constitution.
But travelling east, problems begin with elections in Algeria on 17
April, where 77-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika aims to retain
power in a country which has seen "no visible progress" on EU-demanded
electoral reforms and where lack of respect for basic civil liberties
"has not changed significantly".
Further east again, Libya is falling apart.
The commission report says "tribal and local skirmishes continue,
politically instigated violence is a daily reality, and clashes between
military brigades outside of the control of the state are a frequent
occurrence." The de facto secession of the Benghazi region has seen
oil output drop from 1.5 million barrels a day to 250,000.
Lack of border control has also seen Libya become "the main transit
country in the Mediterranean for economic migrants, refugees, and
asylum seekers" to Europe.
The commission report does not say it, but the German government
recently told its MPs things are so bad, the EU border control mission,
Eubam Libya, has just one third of personnel in place and is thinking
of moving to Malta.
Tunisia is a pocket of relative normality.
But Egypt is fast-turning into a basket case. The commission report
glosses over the army's coup d'etat and its killing of more than
1,000 Muslim Brotherhood protesters in 2013 as "politically a very
challenging year." But it documents the accompanying crackdown on
civil society and media.
It also gives weight to Fuele's remark that EU reforms "cannot be
imposed from outside."
The report noted that his colleague, foreign affairs chief Catherine
Ashton, visited Cairo "several times". But despite her visits, the
crackdown continued. Egypt this week sentenced more than 500 Muslim
Brotherhood prisoners to death. Ashton published a complaint.
Moving on to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories,
Fuele's team said Israel's unchecked settlement building, impunity
for settler violence against Palestinians, detentions of Palestinians,
and its almost total isolation of Gaza mean "tension has increased."
Israel's two neighbours - Jordan and Lebanon - are struggling to cope
with a "steady and continuous wave of refugees from Syria."
There are 584,600 UN-registered refugees in Jordan (media say 1.2
million in total), which is beginning to run out of water, and 974,400
in Lebanon, which is seeing increased sectarian violence.
The EU also puts a price on the cost of the Syrian civil war.
In the latest data available, its overall exports dropped by 52
percent in 2012 and its EU exports dropped by 91 percent.
Mainland Europe
Hopping to mainland Europe, the commission praised Georgia for its
pro-EU reforms, but warned it to "ensure that criminal prosecutions
are conducted in a transparent and impartial manner, [and] free of
political motivation."
The EU is aiming to sign an association pact with Georgia in June
despite the fact it is partitioned by Russia.
But someone in Georgia is happy to play into Russia's hands: the day
after the EU announced the June date, Georgia summoned its former
president, Mikheil Saakashvili, to answer prosecutors' questions on
a string of criminal cases.
He skipped the meeting, due on 27 March, saying EU friends had told
him not to risk jail and, by extension, harming EU-Georgia ties.
The reports also take Armenia (rampant corruption) and Azerbaijan
(authoritarianism) to task.
Last year, Armenia binned its EU association hopes due to
Russian threats over its frozen conflict with Azerbaijan over
Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan by itself binned an EU "strategic"
agreement by rejecting EU requests to include a promise on human
rights.
For anyone hoping that more than 20 years of EU and US diplomacy
on Nagorno-Karabakh has helped, the EU report added: "An upsurge
of violence along the line of contact was nevertheless witnessed
early 2014."
Elsewhere, the EU's top demand for Moldova, also partitioned by Russia
but hoping to sign an EU pact in June, was to "intensify the fight
against corruption at all levels."
With speculation mounting that Russia will invade Moldova's breakaway
Transniestria region to encircle Ukraine, the EU report added: "Little
development can be reported with regard to the Transnistrian conflict."
The reports add nothing new on Ukraine.
They also note the situation in Belarus remains grim: "232
persons and 25 entities remain subject to EU sanctions, as not all
political prisoners have been released, no released prisoner has been
rehabilitated, and the respect for human rights, the rule of law and
democratic principles has not improved."
Russia and Turkey are not covered by the neighbourhood policy.
But the Ukraine crisis has revealed a bottomless chasm between Moscow
and Brussels, which is currently preparing for economic warfare
against Russia in case of a full-scale Ukraine invasion.
The slide toward autocracy and instability in Turkey - the only
country in the region with EU accession hopes - also continued on
Thursday when PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan blocked YouTube in the run-up
to local and presidential elections.
The ban comes a few days after he blocked Twitter and two weeks after
two more people died in clashes between protesters and police.
http://euobserver.com/foreign/123653
EUobserver
March 28 2014
By Andrew Rettman BRUSSELS - Most countries round the EU's southern and
eastern rim are seeing an increase of instability, authoritarianism,
and corruption, according to European Commission reports published
on Thursday (27 March).
The commissioner in charge of trying to make things better, Stefan
Fuele, said in a statement that "popular aspirations for a better
life and for enjoying basic human rights and fundamental freedoms
remain strong".
He noted the EU spent EURO 2.6 billion on "neighbourhood policy"
states last year, and has earmarked EURO 15.4 billion for 2014 to 2020.
But he added that "reform cannot be imposed from outside".
The situation is stable in Morocco, where Fuele's top recommendation
is to accelerate changes to the constitution.
But travelling east, problems begin with elections in Algeria on 17
April, where 77-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika aims to retain
power in a country which has seen "no visible progress" on EU-demanded
electoral reforms and where lack of respect for basic civil liberties
"has not changed significantly".
Further east again, Libya is falling apart.
The commission report says "tribal and local skirmishes continue,
politically instigated violence is a daily reality, and clashes between
military brigades outside of the control of the state are a frequent
occurrence." The de facto secession of the Benghazi region has seen
oil output drop from 1.5 million barrels a day to 250,000.
Lack of border control has also seen Libya become "the main transit
country in the Mediterranean for economic migrants, refugees, and
asylum seekers" to Europe.
The commission report does not say it, but the German government
recently told its MPs things are so bad, the EU border control mission,
Eubam Libya, has just one third of personnel in place and is thinking
of moving to Malta.
Tunisia is a pocket of relative normality.
But Egypt is fast-turning into a basket case. The commission report
glosses over the army's coup d'etat and its killing of more than
1,000 Muslim Brotherhood protesters in 2013 as "politically a very
challenging year." But it documents the accompanying crackdown on
civil society and media.
It also gives weight to Fuele's remark that EU reforms "cannot be
imposed from outside."
The report noted that his colleague, foreign affairs chief Catherine
Ashton, visited Cairo "several times". But despite her visits, the
crackdown continued. Egypt this week sentenced more than 500 Muslim
Brotherhood prisoners to death. Ashton published a complaint.
Moving on to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories,
Fuele's team said Israel's unchecked settlement building, impunity
for settler violence against Palestinians, detentions of Palestinians,
and its almost total isolation of Gaza mean "tension has increased."
Israel's two neighbours - Jordan and Lebanon - are struggling to cope
with a "steady and continuous wave of refugees from Syria."
There are 584,600 UN-registered refugees in Jordan (media say 1.2
million in total), which is beginning to run out of water, and 974,400
in Lebanon, which is seeing increased sectarian violence.
The EU also puts a price on the cost of the Syrian civil war.
In the latest data available, its overall exports dropped by 52
percent in 2012 and its EU exports dropped by 91 percent.
Mainland Europe
Hopping to mainland Europe, the commission praised Georgia for its
pro-EU reforms, but warned it to "ensure that criminal prosecutions
are conducted in a transparent and impartial manner, [and] free of
political motivation."
The EU is aiming to sign an association pact with Georgia in June
despite the fact it is partitioned by Russia.
But someone in Georgia is happy to play into Russia's hands: the day
after the EU announced the June date, Georgia summoned its former
president, Mikheil Saakashvili, to answer prosecutors' questions on
a string of criminal cases.
He skipped the meeting, due on 27 March, saying EU friends had told
him not to risk jail and, by extension, harming EU-Georgia ties.
The reports also take Armenia (rampant corruption) and Azerbaijan
(authoritarianism) to task.
Last year, Armenia binned its EU association hopes due to
Russian threats over its frozen conflict with Azerbaijan over
Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan by itself binned an EU "strategic"
agreement by rejecting EU requests to include a promise on human
rights.
For anyone hoping that more than 20 years of EU and US diplomacy
on Nagorno-Karabakh has helped, the EU report added: "An upsurge
of violence along the line of contact was nevertheless witnessed
early 2014."
Elsewhere, the EU's top demand for Moldova, also partitioned by Russia
but hoping to sign an EU pact in June, was to "intensify the fight
against corruption at all levels."
With speculation mounting that Russia will invade Moldova's breakaway
Transniestria region to encircle Ukraine, the EU report added: "Little
development can be reported with regard to the Transnistrian conflict."
The reports add nothing new on Ukraine.
They also note the situation in Belarus remains grim: "232
persons and 25 entities remain subject to EU sanctions, as not all
political prisoners have been released, no released prisoner has been
rehabilitated, and the respect for human rights, the rule of law and
democratic principles has not improved."
Russia and Turkey are not covered by the neighbourhood policy.
But the Ukraine crisis has revealed a bottomless chasm between Moscow
and Brussels, which is currently preparing for economic warfare
against Russia in case of a full-scale Ukraine invasion.
The slide toward autocracy and instability in Turkey - the only
country in the region with EU accession hopes - also continued on
Thursday when PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan blocked YouTube in the run-up
to local and presidential elections.
The ban comes a few days after he blocked Twitter and two weeks after
two more people died in clashes between protesters and police.
http://euobserver.com/foreign/123653