EU leaders refuse to demand Mubarak’s immediate resignation

EU wants speedy transition to democracy, but will not interfere in domestic issues.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said today that the European Union had no right to demand the immediate resignation of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s embattled president.

Merkel, speaking at the end of a one-day summit on Friday (4 February), said EU leaders “are of the opinion that we should not interfere on that particular issue”.

Mubarak has promised not to stand for re-election later this year, but has so far refused to bend to demands from protestors to stand down. The 11 days of demonstrations in Egypt have been rocked by violence and bloodshed.

David Cameron, the UK prime minister, said the choice of government had to be made in Egypt. “I don’t believe it is the role of people in the west to dictate to other countries about how they are running their countries.”

“The democratic transition should be as speedy as possible,” said Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president.
‘Orderly transition’

The 27 EU leaders did call for an “orderly transition” to a new, broad-based government in Egypt to start “now”. They also condemned the violence in Egypt “in the strongest terms” and called on all sides to show restraint.

They added that the EU should be more active in holding countries in the Middle East to account through the association agreements it has signed with them. These agreements require countries to uphold human rights.

“We expect these countries to adhere to the principles on which our association agreements are based,” said Merkel. She said that Egypt had received more than €500 million over the last three years, as part of neighbourhood cooperation. “Of course this is tied to certain expectations on our part,” she said.

Cameron said that the EU needed to make better use of its aid and political capital to promote reforms. “We do need to have a long hard look at whether we are using our money and our leverage to best effect,” he said.
Freedom of information

The leaders also appealed for Egyptian authorities not to restrict the free flow of information, and to prevent attacks on journalists and human rights defenders.“The threats to the press are deeply unacceptable. Words fail me to express my
disgust,” said Sarkozy.

The leaders said they would give their “full support” to the transition toward democratic governments in the region. They asked Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief to visit Egypt and Tunisia to offer support for their transition.

She is expected to visit the two countries in the coming two weeks, diplomats said.

They added the EU could offer support in preparing for elections as well as providing election monitors. Ashton is also looking into drawing up a package of measures to support the transition to democratic governments, and link EU funding to these objectives.