How should we interpret the EU’s self-contradictory stance in these two cases? On March 21, 2012, the Malian army intervened in Malian civilian politics. The army overthrew the government, occupied state television, and forced the president to hide for his safety. European leaders unsurprisingly suspended diplomatic relations with Mali and condemned the army. It took just one day for the European Commission to freeze development aid to the country. Similarly, the Egyptian army intervened in politics and removed the first elected president in Egypt’s history. More than 300 members of the Muslim Brotherhood have been arrested. TV stations have been shut down. The day after the military coup in Egypt, reporters quizzed the spokesman of Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, to learn whether the EU would call the events in Egypt a “coup” or not. The spokesman’s reply was striking: according to him the question was “semantic”. No official EU representative labeled the events a “coup” and not a single euro of the EU’s €5 billions development assistance was cancelled. todayszaman/mobile_detailn.action?newsId=321509
Posted on: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 23:50:04 +0000
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