The Sights Have Been Drastically Lowered
Alone the language indicates that ten years after its launching the Barcelona Process has lost much of what was supposed to make it the driving force behind a productive cooperation with the southern Mediterranean countries.
The anniversary of Barcelona was not needed to demonstrate that ten years after the start of the process the sights have been drastically lowered.
Naturally the times have changed as well. In 1995 one still believed, and not only in Europe, that the Middle East was at the beginning of a new and—above all—peaceful phase: Four years earlier a Middle East peace conference in Madrid had ended without results, but then the Israelis and Palestinians agreed to a peace strategy in Oslo in 1993, and a year later Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel.
Europe could and wanted to take part in these endeavors. But ten years later nobody is talking anymore about Oslo. Instead they are searching for a new start in diplomatic efforts between the Israelis and Palestinians.
September 11, the attacks in Madrid and London, and naturally the Iraq War have also created new circumstances, sown new fears and distrust, and raised new obstacles.
This has hindered Europeans and the southern Mediterranean border countries from "meeting on equal terms"—as was originally planned.
The Barcelona Process - a foreign aid project?
The Europeans are treating the Barcelona Process more like a foreign aid project to which a broad spectrum of issues has been delegated—from water supply and waste disposal to education, good governance, and democracy.
And from the opposing Arab side the process is regarded as a vehicle for rapprochement with Europe. Not as in eastern Europe with the aim of accession—there was never any question about that—but with the aim of improving trade and economic relations with Europe.
Brussels "rewards" political good behavior with agreements. In the process, however, the real goals often get lost. Thus this year's UN report on human development in the Arab world ascertained once again that lack of progress in the region was largely due to the fact that the Arab world is still ruled by undemocratic and repressive regimes.
Europe has no more been able to change this than the United States, with which it finds itself competing for the favor of the Arab states. If the past few years have seen the first signs of a move toward more democracy, then mostly because of pressure from Washington. And always—as the case of Egypt shows—without real, fundamental changes.
Unverifyable assumptions about Islamist regimes
Europeans are caught in the same trap as the Americans. At least since September 11 they have accepted that the regimes in most Arab countries do not meet their expectations. And they take heart in the—by no means verifiable—assumption that the alternatives would be Islamist regimes and that these would be much worse.
The EU has also become modest in face of its own powerlessness in the Middle East conflict, which continues to goad the Arab "partners" of the Barcelona Process. The EU is a member of the "Middle East quartet:" it pays for peace projects and has recently become directly involved in the region—in the surveillance of the border crossing at Rafah. But it has not succeeded in bringing about a Mediterranean consensus on the necessity of peace, much less on the question of terrorism.
Europeans are proud of having passed an anti-terrorism declaration in Barcelona, but everyone knows that it is of little value, because everyone defines "terrorism" differently.
Nobody has been able to bring democracy to the Arab world, nor peace. The Barcelona Process also hoped to bring about stability and security. Security from whom? Security against whom? They cannot mean security from terrorists, for that cannot be achieved by means of agreements between governments.
Perhaps the "security" from increased immigration from the southern Mediterranean states to Europe? Does "Fortress Europe" want to cultivate its approaches and ingratiate itself? The scenes from the European border fence in Morocco say something different…
Peter Philipp
© Qantara.de 2005
Translated from the German by Nancy Joyce
Qantara.de
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