Italy’s military trade deal with Egypt neglected EU citizens’ protection, human rights protection in post-2013 Egypt and the drive towards demilitarisation, ignoring the ENPI’s goals.

Italy’s management of the Libyan crisis, for example, ended up restoring dialogue with general Haftar.

The EU failed to tackle the underlying structural problems that beset most Middle Eastern and North African countries In recent years, EU member states have preferred to pursue their own foreign policy agenda in the Mediterranean to protect national economic-military interests. The EU also failed in its efforts towards achieving cohesion in Europe's approach to the region. The EU has failed the Middle East and its people, tarnishing its image, especially among young people. Most of the EU’s actions in the region, therefore, have ended up supporting a superficial revolution, and have failed to tackle the underlying structural problems that beset most Middle Eastern and North African countries. And it has overlooked the domestic political structures through which autocrats rise and fall. Instead, it has supported the internal restoration of business elite circles within which the military and old elites play a decisive role. Yet, despite all the rhetoric, the EU has failed to invest properly in achieving these goals. In 2016 it promoted the Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme and in 2019, it ratified an agreement to promote democratisation, despite acknowledging the significant deterioration of human rights in the region. These goals stem from the 2012 transitions, when the EU emphasised democratisation, and supported the people’s demand for change. Through the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI), and its financial arm, the European Neighbourhood Partnership Instrument (ENPI), it putatively strives towards achieving political change, democracy, social justice and a reduction in corruption. The EU is an important political actor in the Mediterranean. Protests also reflected social class struggles against neoliberalism and clientelism, which acted as accelerators of dissatisfaction. These uprisings exposed regime violence against civilians in Egypt, Syria, Bahrain and Libya. Maria Gloria Polimeno argues for a more inclusivist social approach, and a revision of the EU's foreign policy towards the region Ten years since the Arab SpringĢ021 marks a decade since uprisings broke out in major Middle Eastern and North African cities under the slogan Eshab yurid isqat al-nizam / The people want the downfall of the regime. The EU has failed to support democracy and political change in the Middle East and North Africa.

Middle eastern countries in revolt