The Arab democratic wave: how the EU can seize the moment

This multi-author report, edited by Álvaro de Vasconcelos, was conceived as a response to the recent uprisings in Tunisia and in Egypt and the ‘democratic wave’ that has struck the Arab world. Clearly, these democratic uprisings call for a radical shift in the way in which Euro-Mediterranean relations are formulated and conducted. The report seeks to examine the significance of these events in this context. The first part of the report focuses on individual countries in the region, in the following sequence: Morocco (Abdallah Saaf), Algeria (Luis Martinez), Tunisia (Azzam Mahjoub), Libya (George Joffé), Egypt (Amr Elshobaki), Palestine (Mouin Rabbani), Jordan (Mohammed Al-Masri), Lebanon (Paul Salem), and Syria (Sami Kamil). The second part of the report consists of three chapters addressing the question of human rights and the rule of law in the region (Gema Martín-Muñoz), the social and economic aspects of the democratic transition process (George Joffé), and the European Neighbourhood Policy (Erwan Lannon).