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Ever since the Arab Spring, where mass public revolts have been replacing dictators with extremists in northern Africa and the Middle East, the European Union has remained a silent bystander, occasionally stepping in with a mild-worded statement calling for an end to conflicts.
Eurocrats in Brussels and the politicians who pull the strings have not yet realised that just because the ugly war is not literally on their doorstep, the civil wars that have torn nations apart do not concern the rest of Europe. How wrong they are.
The Middle East tensions are having an impact on markets. U.S. stock index futures are suffering from rising tension over a possible military response to a chemical weapons attack against Syrian civilians, European shares have hit a month low, while the crisis has knocked Britain’s FTSE.
On a humanitarian and social front, refugees are flocking to the European safe haven, some justified, others seeking better fortunes, straining the EU’s resources further as it tries to balance the rise in refugees with a lack of funds due to widespread austerity measures.
The creation of the post of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy has proven to be yet another bureaucratic achievement, with Catherine Ashton seeming more like an ambassador looking after member and trans-Atlantic paymasters’ interests. In fact, since her title also calls for security policy, she should have been at the forefront of efforts to find peace in the region that, in turn, would ensure security on the outer rim of the EU and even within.
It is ironic that Ashton was appointed in a compromise after London failed to see Tony Blair take the chair of European Council President at a time when Britons want out of the EU and less EU involvement in their home, financial, defence and foreign affairs.
With few people genuinely interested in what happens in and around the Mediterranean basin, perhaps Cyprus ought to break away from the ineffective EU foreign policy that simply aims to serve the interests of the West, Turkey and some states keen on keeping the Sunni-Shiite conflict alive.
Cyprus will once again be at the forefront of dealing on its own with a major refugee crisis with hardly any solidarity from the rest of our EU members, just as they did in March when they experimented with our banking system, simply because they had nothing else to suggest.
