Democracy is no Longer a Priority

Like the European Union, the North American Union, and United Nations, the work of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, a.k.a. EuroMed, relies on the inattention of the general populace to achieve its goals.

EuroMed initiatives and proposals and white papers are written in the sort of bureaucratese that provides a more effective soporific than phenobarbitol. Meetings are not held secretly, but there is no great to-do about them, and no paparazzi stalk the decidedly uncharismatic functionaries who carry their briefcases and Blackberries up the stairs into the hallowed halls of Barcelona or Brussels.

No fuss. No fanfare. No clamoring reporters. But very quietly and matter-of-factly, behind closed doors, the few freedoms that remain to European citizens are being rapidly eroded as their neighbors from the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean are invited into the house to ransack the cupboards, carry off the silverware, and raid the refrigerator.

Here’s the latest from ANSAmed:

European Council to Strengthen Ties With Region

BRUSSELS, JANUARY 15 — The Euro-Mediterranean region is on the agenda of the parliamentary Assembly of the European Council, in which a strategy to play a more important role in relations between the two sides of the Mediterranean will be discussed.

One of the proposals stresses the importance of the stability of the Mediterranean area for Europe, and underlines how stability can be reached through democracy, respect for human rights and a constitutional state. Several Mediterranean countries have declared to be committed to these goals on a bilateral level, and have shown interest in the European Council’s experience in this field.

Despite the fact that democracy was a topic at the foundation of the Mediterranean Union in Paris, it is no priority in the multilateral initiatives announced in the Union’s framework. [emphasis added]

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That is the reason for the draft proposal to have the Mediterranean Union extend its activities in that direction, that way also involving the European Council. The proposal includes a 2-way approach: on bilateral level, continuing to offer assistance to its partner countries, and on a multilateral level by trying to participate in the Euro-Mediterranean and Mediterranean Union partnership process, embracing the priorities of the European Council: democracy, human rights and constitutional state. (ANSAmed)

As Henrik pointed out yesterday, Ahmad Khalaf Masadeh, a citizen from the decidedly undemocratic Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, has been appointed as secretary general of the Mediterranean Union.

And now it has become all but official: democracy is not really all that important to EuroMed. No, not at all.


Hat tip: Insubria.