How can the European Union foster social resilience in the Middle East and North Africa

Abstract

November 2020 will mark the 25th anniversary of one of the most important experiences of cooperation between the two shores of the Mediterranean, the Barcelona Process (1995). Two and a half decades later, the perceptions of failure and fatigue are the predominant ones. However, the geopolitical situation of the EU and the new geopolitical impetus recognized in the EU Global Strategy (2016) provides us with a new opportunity to bet for reinforcing the cooperative platform within the Euro-Mediterranean relations. It is at this point that it might be necessary to think about the role displayed by the EU in the MENA region concerning the issue of resilience. How can the EU foster resilience in the MENA region in general, and in Lebanon in particular? How can the EU help Lebanon increase its democratic resilience to fight corruption? Which factors shaped the EU’s state-building initiatives in Lebanon? In raising these questions, this article examines, on the one hand, the guiding principles of EU action in the MENA region, and on the other, the role displayed by the EU in fostering Resilience focus on the State and societal resilience in Lebanon concerning corruption. The main argument is that the EU state-building, as the main tool to foster resilience, was hampered by three main factors, the presence of interests of the Major Powers, the existence of false dilemmas, and the roles displayed by certain internal factors like the power-sharing political mechanisms that mesmerize outsiders. As a result, the EU has only been partially involved, losing part of its potential to influence the course of events.