Syria
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9 February 2012Le Soir Brussels
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European parliament
Sakharov prize for the Arab spring
14 December 2011PresseuropEl Mundo -
17 November 2011The New York Times New York
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Germany-Syria
Damascus spying with European technology
7 November 20111PresseuropDer Spiegel -
Diplomacy
EU to embargo Syrian oil
2 September 2011PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
EU-Syria
Calls to boycott Syrian oil
31 August 2011PresseuropPresseurop -
Europe-Syria
“Your silence is killing us”
2 August 20112Corriere della Sera Milan -
Middle East
Europe has a role to play
28 July 20111Al Hayat London -
Libya/Syria
Double jeopardy for France
12 July 20111PresseuropLibération -
Editorial
Support Ankara against Assad
17 June 2011Presseurop -
Middle East
Europe doesn't have the firepower
15 June 20115Libération Paris -
Diplomacy
5 billion to aid Arab revolutions
26 May 2011PresseuropEl País -
Syria-EU
Carte blanche for Assad
12 May 20112SME Bratislava -
Union for the Mediterranean
The Med’s adrift
23 September 2010El País Madrid -
Religion and State
Burqa, the cross we must bear
21 July 201014Der Standard Vienna -
Geopolitics
The new old order
20 October 2009The Independent London -
Middle East
Moving closer to Syria
27 August 2009The Guardian London
In the wake of 9/11, the West demanded that Arab populations embrace democracy. In countries like Syria, they are now risking their lives to do just that, while Europeans stand back as though they were incapable of dealing with problems beyond their borders. The founder of the Community of Saint Egidio sets the record straight. 
After years of playing a secondary role in the Arab world, the EU now has an opportunity to exert a positive influence in a region where the United States and Russia have failed to respond to radical change. An Al-Hayat columnist outlines how Europe can make a difference. 
Now that they are involved in Libya, Europeans have discovered that they do not have the means to achieve their ambitions. And without the backing of military means, EU diplomacy will not be credible in a strategic region for Europe. This is the logic behind the need for common defence programmes. 
While determined to bring at end to Muammar Gaddafi's violence against the Libyan people, Europe has been largely silent about the terror exacted by the Basher Al Assad regime in Syria. And the sanctions against his regime announced on the 10 May are further proof of Europe's powerlessness. 
The enthusiasm with which the Union for the Mediterranean was launched two years ago has been steadily waning ever since. The main reason why, says French political philosopher Sami Naïr, is the lack of a serious EU commitment to the region. 
The ban on the burqa in Belgium and France, now spreading to Spain, the UK, and even to universities in Egypt and Syria, points up the hypocrisy and double standards of Western Christian culture, writes German philosopher Andrea Roedig. If the burqa is an instrument of oppression, isn’t the cross we worship really a morbid fascination with torture? 
With America increasingly disengaged from European affairs, and Russian influence tentative at most, the Independent wonders whether in this new age of alignments Europe might not be reverting to the order of old. 
Britain’s recent call to bring Syria into the EU’s European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is part of a wider western strategy to tempt the previously isolated Ba'athist regime away from Iran and continue co-operation with the west in Iraq and Lebanon. Chris Philips at the Guardian wonders whether we are witnessing another example of human rights and democracy being sacrificed for political expediency.