Arab Awakening: Europe's unclean hands
Last year I caught a Roman Circus. The ringmaster was Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. He had brought with him to the Eternal City a troupe of Berber riders, charging horses and flashing lances.
Whilst in town he decided on some lecturing. A modelling agency was hired to find several young women to listen to the Libyan leader. They were paid a handful of euros to sit at his feet. "Women," he told them, "are more respected in Libya than in the West". "Islam," he went on, "should be the religion of the whole of Europe".
Later at a dinner Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had told his guest: "if you behave we'll sing you a song".
The reason for all of this chumminess was to celebrate a friendship accord that had been signed between Italy and Libya in 2008. The old armourer of the IRA and other causes had come in from the cold. Italy in particular had fallen over itself to get Libyan money into Italian companies.
There was another key element to this new relationship. Libya had been used by thousands of Africans as the stepping-off point for the journey into Europe via Malta and, in particular, Italy. Gaddafi had agreed to stem the flow and to take back those migrants that reached Italian islands.
In 2004 Tony Blair met with him and spoke of a "new relationship". Later, once diplomatic relations had been restored, the UK agreed to export arms to Tripoli.
What was ignored in all of this was that Gaddafi was a ruthless leader who crushed dissent and had been in power for almost 40 years.
The same was true elsewhere. Europe supped with North Africa's autocratic leaders. France has discovered that its Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie recently flew on a jet owned by a close associate to the Tunisian ex-President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Over Christmas the French Prime Minister, Francois Fillon, had enjoyed Hosni Mubarak's hospitality in Egypt. The emirs, sheikhs and kings were feted on their trips to London and Paris. We needed their oil and welcomed their shopping. They were even tapped up to buy football clubs.
Most crucially of all they were seen as providing security for the West's oil needs and as a bulwark against Islamist extremism.
What Europe and the West did not do, until very recently, was to side with human rights and the aspirations of the people.
Condescendingly the West bought into the myth of the Arab street, that the people of North Africa and the Middle East were somehow unfit for democracy. They occasionally raised a fist or two after Friday prayers, but were essentially docile. This, too, was the message conveyed by their leaders when they dined at Western tables.
What recent events have shown, however, is that a younger generation in the Middle East and North Africa share many of the dreams of young people everywhere. They want jobs, freedom and respect.
Europe has come to their side late - and so in the present turmoil must walk humbly. Like the US, it has struggled to find a consistent voice in this crisis.
For the moment the policy can be summed up as opposing violence and supporting dialogue. UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said yesterday: "what Colonel Gaddafi should be doing is respecting basic human rights and there is no sign of that in the dreadful response, the horrifying response, of the Libyan authorities to their protests."
The EU's foreign policy chief, Baroness Ashton, was also . Such international voices should not be dismissed. They may well have helped save lives in Bahrain and Egypt.
The Libyan authorities clearly believe these European statements are encouraging the protests. Tripoli has threatened to halt co-operation on illegal migration. One man who might have some influence in the Libyan capital has chosen to stay off the phone. Silvio Berlusconi, who has the closest relationship with Gaddafi of all Europe's leaders, said that he had not wanted to "disturb" the Libyan leader.
Europe is now debating what it can do longer term. There is talk of a grandiose plan for North Africa. A new type of partnership. There is both fear and a sense of opportunity. "Europe must act quickly," said the Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, "or the 'arc of crisis' will lead to more illegal immigration, terrorism and Islamic radicalisation".
The opportunity is to support reform with investment. There are those who believe that Europe should tilt away from investing in countries to the east, in favour of countries to the south.
It is an ambition fraught with difficulty. How should Europe invest? Not in government, almost certainly. What is the best way to stimulate jobs?
How will such funds be monitored? The EU has a mixed record with its spending. And then there is the question of what Europe's taxpayers can afford. This is a time of austerity and high unemployment across Europe and yet, as the German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said, it is a "historic watershed - nothing will be as it was before". But the case will have to be made to Europe's voters.
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