THE EU AND THE MIDDLE EAST: AN EGYPTIAN VIEW

Abstract

Despite its vital interests in the Middle East and the link between European and Middle East security, Europe has once more, now that the consequences of the oil crisis of the 1970s have long since receded, ceded the ‘management’ of Middle Eastern affairs to the US. The European Union EU has accepted the well-worn statement that Washington holds most of the cards in its own hands. This tendency has been reinforced by the EU’s lack of a clear, common policy on foreign policy and security issues for most of the past two decades. The EU has continued to refine its experiment in regional cooperation in economic and social issues, or what is termed ‘low politics’, but has not given serious consideration to the issues of ‘high politics’, first and foremost foreign policy and security.