Only two of the winners were there to receive their awards in Strasbourg: Lybian Ahmed al-Senussi, who spent 31 years in Muammar Gaddafi’s prisons, and Egyptian activist Asmaa Mahfouz of the April 6 Youth movement. Among the other laureates, Syria’s Razan Zeitouneh, a human rights lawyer and blogger, is currently living in hiding, while Syrian political satirist Ali Farzat has sought refuge in Kuwait following an attack by supporters of the Bashar al-Assad regime. The fifth prize was posthumously attributed to Mohamed Bouazizi, whose self-immolation triggered the Tunisian uprising.

"For years, Europe turned a blind eye to the Arab dictatorships" and this year’s awards "symbolise a sense of culpability," argues the Spanish daily. But notwithstanding the European parliament’s condemnation of repression in Syria, "Brussels has yet to articulate a unified response to Assad," and "much remains to be done, if the EU is to respond in an adequate manner to the process of democracy in the Arab world."

Until now, points out El País, in its approach to countries like Egypt and Tunisia "the EU strategy has been based on the principle of ‘security in exchange for millions of euros.’” The parameters that have now been announced -- free elections, freedom of speech in the press, an independent judiciary, the fight against corruption, and democratic control of security and armed forces -- will enable Europe to measure the level of democracy in these countries. The Madrid daily notes that the plan unveiled by the European diplomacy chief also includes measures for the control of migration flows. However, it points out that "Ashton has denied that the plan offers money to prevent immigration."

They showed themselves to be amateurs, because they were counting on the inevitability of a domino effect: in the wake of the downfall of Ben Ali in Tunisia, and Mubarak in Egypt, they assumed that Gaddafi had no hope of clinging to power, and in so doing demonstrated their feeble understanding of the Jamahiriya and the system of power established by its leader, which has prevailed for the last 40 years.

They showed themselves to be divided and unable to take the initiative: after the start of the uprising, they let three weeks go by before sitting down to discuss the EU’s response. When a meeting was finally held, the sternest measure to emerge from the Extraordinary European Council of 11 March proved to be a pledge to examine "all necessary options" so as to "to protect the civilian population." This was presented along with a call “for the rapid holding of a summit between the Arab League, the African Union and the European Union,” and a demand that Gaddafi whose regime was “no longer an interlocutor for the EU “should “relinquish power immediately.” But it was hardly enough to persuade a desperate dictator to give up the ghost.

While this was happening, the tide was turning in Libya where the power struggle was once again going Gaddafi’s way – a fact that highlighted the truly shortsighted and precarious nature of the European position. Having blocked any possibility of an "honourable" exit for the Libyan dictator, and having rejected a Franco-British proposal for a no-fly zone  –  read “military intervention” – on the pretext that the conditions (indiscriminate attacks on civilians, a UN Security Council resolution and support from Arab countries) were not fulfilled, and finally by refusing to provide other forms of aid to the Libyan National Council, the Europeans took the risk of allowing the Colonel regain lost ground. No one expected the resurgence of  what Le Temps journalist Serge Michel has described as "prosperous version of North Korea on the Mediterranean," which is why no one took the trouble to develop a “plan B” to deal with the eventuality of Gaddafi’s continued control: yet another major miscalculation.

As the Irish resignedly exercise their democratic right, they are also watching the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, where hundreds are dying for basic freedoms. Many riveted to Al Jazeera or BBC as events thrillingly and frighteningly unfold must feel moved and also inspired, because they, like most of us, must instinctively grasp what a noble thing democracy is. Correspondingly, their hearts must also sink at the idea that at some point, after all this sacrifice and blood spilled, that the peoples of Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya will have to choose between local variants of Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, bickering about which taxes to tweak, public services to cut, and how to get a better interest rate for EU/IMF reimbursements.

Must the advent of democracy inevitably lead to technocratic quibbling? In some ways recent comparisons between events now and the revolutions of 1989 are unfortunate. If voter turnout in ex-Communist countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Poland is a barometer for the enthusiasm democracy inspires, then an average 50% to 60% for elections suggests that the answer is Yes. Only twenty years down the road, nearly half of these electorates have simply switched off.

The problem is not just complacency, but seems also due to how timid and uninspiring our leaders are. How, for instance, can they sustain respect when the likes of EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and Barack Obama were so embarrassingly lukewarm as Egyptians, at the risk of their lives, poured into Tahrir Square? What would they do if tyranny stalked Europe again? And yet this hasn’t so much to do with their personal failings, but rather a risk averse political culture, which means that an essentially decent woman like Lady Ashton and the once exhilarating Obama have such little room for manouevre, and seem crushed, and not liberated, by all the power at their disposal. Because we live in societies that dare nothing, then inevitably nothing will change, and as a result voting becomes no more uplifting a gesture than choosing between Cornflakes or Rice Krispies at the supermarket. Despite decades of tyranny however, the people of North Africa are proving that what seems like iron reality can turn as quickly to dust. When entering the polling booth Irish people, like Europeans, should remember that the world is not hard cheese, but their oyster.

Meanwhile, EUobserver reports that Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini has called on the EU to send a high-level "political support team" to Egypt to “calm tensions”, as well as in other North African countries hit by civil unrest. At a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday 31 January, Frattini will outline plans for a European mission that takes contact with “the highest levels […] with civil society, mayors, opposition parties, to collect information, not to give orders.” The minister feels that the highly volatile situation in Egypt cannot “be dealt with by sporadic initiatives of this or that country in Europe, but only by a European initiative." But by Monday, it may well be too late.

“Azerbaijan dashed Nabucco promoters’ hopes by deciding in early July to grant priority access to Gazprom,” explains the French daily. In view of Europe’s irate reactions, however, the Azerbaijani State oil company has since confirmed that it will supply the quantities pledged. Turkmenistan, for its part, which is on bad terms with Moscow, has opted to join the European project. “Brussels hopes to clinch the same promise from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, though in the longer term it is ogling the gas reserves in Egypt, Iraq and Iran,” concludes Le Figaro.