Mgr. Eva Taterová, M.A., Ph.D.
Politics and Society in the Middle East
EU AND THE MIDDLE EAST

CONCEPT OF SOFT POWER
•Term opposed to „hard power“ (power to coerce).
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•EU tries to spread its own values and ideas (democracy, human rights) in the world.
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•Crucial for close neighbours because of stability.
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•Some EU states disagreed with US intervention to Iraq.

COPENHAGEN CRITERIA
•Set of conditions the candidate states would have to fulfil to become members:
•Political – democracy, stable institutions, rule of law, respect to human rights.
•Economic – market economy, ability to sustain competition in the internal market.
•Aquis communitaire– to transport all EU law into national legal orders (including EMU).
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MEMBERSHIP CONDITIONALITY
•For many countries EU membership is very attractive.
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•“Power of attraction“ can turn soft power into a power of coercion.
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•The possibility of membership has to be credible.
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•For many European countries nowadays EU membership is a “far shot“.
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EU CANDIDATE COUNTRIES
•Turkey
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•Nothern Macedonia
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•Montenegro
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•Serbia
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•Island (stopped)
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•Since 2014 Albania

POSITION OF TURKEY
•Associate member since 1963.
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•Partner country in NATO.
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•Application in 1987, candidate country since 1999.
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•Negotiations opened in 2004, but are very slow.
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•Poor country (but with huge GDP growth), large agriculture.
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•Does it lie in Europe?
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•Common history.
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•Current political problems in Turkey.
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EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICY
•Established in 2004 as a framework of relations with neighbouring countries.
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•First idea was to capitalize on the relations of the new member states with EECs.
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•The southern countries wanted to include also Mediterrean countries.
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•Includes altogether 16 countries.
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•In fact bilateral relations between the EU and a given country.
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EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICY
•Action Plans are the most important tools – program of concreate reforms in the area of democracy,
access to EU markets.
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•Monitoring of progress.
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•ENP as a main financial instrument of cooperation.
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EU AND MEDITERRANEAN
•One of the first regions where the then EC established deeper ties.
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•1995 as a breaking point – Barcelona Process signed.
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•Multilateral platform of cooperation.
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•Political, security, economic, cultural and social level of cooperation.

UNION FOR MEDITERRANEAN
•Follows the former Barcelona Process established in 1995.
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•Was created in 2008, idea of Nicolas Sarkozy – at first it should have been a much closer union of
states.
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•Turkey opposed – no alternative to EU membership.
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UNION FOR MEDITERRANEAN
•Contains EU countries, Maghreb and Mashriq countries, Bosna, Montenegro, Albania, and Mauritania.
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•Ambitious goals: cooperation in education, industry, science, transport, energy security, water
resources, development
of rural areas, and many others.
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EU AND MAGHREB
•Countries that are important for EU countries as regards resources: Lybian oil (25% for Italy in
2009) and gas from Algeria (ITA 42%)
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•Cooperation in migration crisis.
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•Cooperation on terrorism – potentialy problematic countries.

EU AND ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT
•EU supports the idea of two states.
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•Since 1967, most of western European countries rather support Arab side.
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•EU criticizes Israeli settlements.
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•EU part of the Quartet (together with U.S., Russia and UN).
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•Member states divided on recognition of Palestine (CZE against,
UK and DE abstained).

EU AND THE ARAB SPRING
•EU supports democratic changes in the region.
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•Substantional amounts of money have been provided through the Support to Partnership, Reform and
Inclusive Growth Policy (SPRING).
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•Syria – EU was only able to agree on sanctions – lowest common denominator.

EU AND MIGRATION CRISIS
•Cooperation of neighbouring countries is crucial
for tackling illegal migration.
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•These countries should protect their border and
not to let transit.
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•Existence of readmission treaties.
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•Most problematic border is Turkey-Greece – FRONTEX action needed – Treaty with Turkey.

MIGRATION CRISIS
•Start in 2015 – sharp increase
in the number of migrants – over
a million people came.
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•EU response was quite slow.
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•Treaty with Greece sealed the Mediterranean route.
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•Pressure moved to Italy – cooperation with Libya.
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•Currently most people come through Spain, but the numbers
are much smaller.

MIGRATION CRISIS: STATISTICS



APPROACH OF VISEGRAD COUNTRIES
•In general, there are not many refugees in V4 countries (most of them come from former USSR).
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•V4 countries deny quota system suggested by EU.
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•Solidarity within EU?
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MORIA CAMP, GREECE
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SOLUTIONS?
•New rules?
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•Current rules put burden at some particular states.
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•Difficult to find consensus in Europe.
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•Asylum quotas?
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•Cooperation with African/Northern African states??
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•Migration/development nexus?

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•THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION