Relationship between European Union (EU) and Middle East are old and have a centralizing feature. This, ally to a historic of authoritarian governments into Middle East and the fear of migration and terrorist threaten, made Europeans policymakers to opt on make alliance with dictatorial governments and, thereby, let their democratic speech vague and ambiguous. The UE established a policy of democracy’s defeat as a way of achieve regional stabilization and promoting peace and security – what agrees with UE’s normative position. However, besides having taken several measures in this regard, the UE prioritized security issues. This contradiction between discourse and actions turned Mediterranean external policy of UE very conflicted. So, why UE continuously chooses for this inconsistent path? The essay aims to answer this question by confirming the hypothesis that if security issues in the relations with the Mediterranean are, in the end, more important than really ensures democratic reforms in the region. This will be demonstrated by, first, analyzing the historic of Europe and Mediterranean’s relations – with the proposal to prove the importance of this region to European continent and the importance of security concerns in this relation – and, second, comparing discourse and actions – in order to verify the contradiction.
Keywords: Normative Power, European Union, Mediterranean, Democratic Speech, Security Actions
Fernanda Pulcineli Chrispim de Lima (nandapulcineli@gmail.com)
Universidade de Coimbra