Working together

Europe "is suffering from a very grave crisis, which is accompanied by an unresolved identity question". So how can Europe pretend to deal with the problems of the Arab world "and the transformations that it is going through", if there are problems of "internal recognizability" – i.e. identity crisis – within the "old continent" itself? Khaled Fouad Allam, Algerian sociologist, is an Islamist expert. Reflecting on what is happening along the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean, he calls into question the role of Europe as a whole. New symbolic frontiers. "What we have seen happening in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt", and what could happen in other countries, such as Syria, "in some sense resembles – he says – the post-Berlin Wall situation" in Europe. The political revolutions, whether peaceful or not, the institutional transformations, and the new social and participative dynamics triggered by the "Arab Spring" are in part a retread of those registered in Poland, Hungary or Romania more than twenty years ago. Allam, who was visiting Rome last week together with other scholars to reflect on Europe and the Mediterranean, goes further: "1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of a historical paradigm, as a result of which Europe was extended into a more universal dimension and considered itself the epicentre of it. "Now, however, perhaps we have passed from the universalism" of Western Europe to a loss of identity, "to a situation of otherness". Europe, and the EU as a subject created by the process of continental integration, is one of the players present on the international stage; one, not the only, nor perhaps the most important of the protagonists of current Mediterranean events. These new developments are inserted in a further context, that of post 9/11, a decade in which "an ethnic view of the world and an ‘ethnicization’ of political, economic and social processes" has been consolidated. The "clash of civilizations", the recrudescence of nationalism, fear of the foreigner and of the migrant, and ignorance of the Muslim world have produced the birth of new symbolic, cultural and religious frontiers: the Western world and Europe fear Islam; they regard it with suspicion, without having any proper knowledge of it, says Allam. Bringing the two shores closer together. "The symbolic frontiers – adds Allam – have been opposed to the two shores of the Mediterranean". This has not prevented the squares of Tunis or Cairo being thronged with protesting youth; it has not silenced the social networks; it has not prevented the fall of Gheddafi. "Today, however, a political void is being ascertained": within the countries in the throws of transformation democracy is struggling to get established, and "that’s why there’s a need for education and study", for the exchange of know-how and experiences between various countries. An "absence of a grammar of international relations" is also being registered, without which it is difficult to establish good and peaceful relations, aimed at mutual development, between the various States that face onto the Mediterranean. A particular emphasis placed by Allam regards the Catholic Church, which, in his view, has long been present and active also in the Arab countries; it "knows these traditions, and understands what is happening in the Islamic world"; so it can be bridge between East and West. Allam, lastly, is critical of the Euro-Mediterranean process which French President Sarkozy would have liked to revive in 2008 to coincide with France’s assumption of the rotating presidency of the European Union. This initiative, in Allam’s view, has had no impact on relations between Europe and the Mediterranean countries. What is needed, therefore, in his view, is "a new vision of Euro-Mediterranean policy, which involves the construction of a space of interaction" between the states, peoples, economies and cultures "that live in this region".Faiths and cultures. "It’s the retirement of Christians from political life" in Egypt "that is jeopardizing the future". "And the East will not have any real progress without the positive and constructive participation of all its peoples, Christians included", insists Father Rafic Greiche, spokesman of the Catholic Church in Egypt. He points out some important aspects of Euro-Mediterranean relations. His interpretation of the Egyptian situation warns of the growing and "preponderant political influence being assumed by Muslims in Cairo", as also in Tunis, in Tripoli or in Morocco. He adds: "We know, however, that Islamists too have plans for their countries, and that’s also the case in Egypt. They too have a desire to overcome the backwardness of the past. So the time has come to work together against poverty, illiteracy, and disease, and to campaign for justice and freedom for women". The President of the Euro-Mediterranean Emuni University at Portoroz in Slovenia, Joseph Mifsud, referring to the "Arab Spring" and the relation between EU, African and Middle-Eastern countries, sharply criticises the policies of various European countries, which "right down to the day before the uprisings" maintained advantageous diplomatic and economic relations with the dictatorial regimes in the area. The EU, for its part, can help promote democracy and development in these nations through aid aimed "at economic growth and employment", by increasing trade relations, but especially by supporting the education and "training of youth", a real guarantee for the growth of participative democracy and the consolidation of the rule of law.