A new neighborhood policy for the EU, more focused on support for democracy.

A new European neighbourhood policy should be adopted and it should balance EU’s interests against values.

• The European neighbourhood policy has failed to convince most of the countries around the EU to adopt democratic systems of government. The revolutions in North Africa give the EU a chance to learn from its mistakes and design a new policy, more focused on support for democracy.
• If the EU wants to influence its neighbours it will need to increase its offer to them. This means more money and easier visa regimes. It should scrap the last restrictions on trade with its southern neighbours and bring them into a customs union. It should speed up the negotiation of free trade agreements with the eastern neighbours. And it should invite the most politically-advanced neighbours to join its discussions on foreign policy.
• The EU should tie the delivery of aid to a neighbour’s performance on democracy and human rights. The neighbourhood policy should be less technocratic and focus more on what the EU and its neighbours want to achieve politically. The Union for the Mediterranean should be shaken up.
• Turkey is in many ways an inspiration for Arab countries, showing that a political movement inspired by Islam can co-exist with democracy in a fairly stable manner. And if its bid for EU membership falters, it may become another sort of example: a country that has close and constructive ties with the EU, without being a full member.

www.cer.org.uk/pdf/pb_grant_neighbourhood_11march11.pdf

Europe;Europe de l’Est;Afrique du Nord;Pays arabes

démocratie;politique extérieure;respect des droits humains