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Europe and Iraq: from stand-off to engagement?

18/11/2004 By Richard Youngs

As of November 2004, persistent violence in Iraq and the legacy of opposition in some European countries to the US-led invasion continued to militate against more extensive EU engagement in the country. At the same time, since the transfer of power to the Iraqi interim government in June 2004, European governments and the Brussels institutions have begun to deliberate on their contribution to building a democratic Iraq.

A new EU strategy, agreed in the summer of 2004, promises consideration of a range of newforms of cooperation and dialogue.

Once the Saddam regime was ousted, most European governments demonstrated far greater concern for the recovery of Iraqi sovereignty than for democracy-building. After the formal transfer of power to the interim government, European governments continued to criticise what they judged to be the lack of effective Iraqi autonomy.

Hence, while the new EU strategy suggests a greater willingness to contribute to institution-building challenges, governments remain uncertain about more practical involvement on the ground. Indeed, a coherent European democracy strategy for Iraq has been conspicuously absent, with the EU having developed no clear position on the main political restructuring challenges now facing the country – including in relation to the elections due to take place in January 2005. A number of member states have actively reined back the scope of new institution-building initiative s.

 

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Keywords

Democratisation European Union Institution building Iraq Middle East Post conflict

Bio author: Richard Youngs

Richard Youngs is Senior Research Fellow and Coordinator of the Democratisation programme at FRIDE. He also lectures at the University of Warwick in the UK. He studied at Cambridge (BA Hons) and Warwick (MA, PhD) universities.