12/07/2008 11:49:38 am
Mediterranean Union. Tomorrow, the EU will formally launch its Mediterranean Union, an initiative by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. This can be regarded as an essential part of a topic I brought up at the debate yesterday at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs: EU Soft Power.

The greatest success of the EU has been enlargement. This has brought institutional stability for democracy and market economy to parts of Europe that could otherwise have taken a totally different turn. Spain, Portugal and Greece were followed by ten countries in Central Europe.

The Eastern Partnership and the Mediterranean Union are new parts of this successful policy. If the EU will not promote its values among its neighbours, others will - like Russia.

To see how successful this policy has been, one can do an American comparison. Imagine if the countries of Central America had had an opportunity to become members of the Unites States of America. Would not the chances of improvement there have been totally different?