The European Union’s eastern accession and neighbourhood processes : do post-1989 experiences in central and eastern Europe have lessons for the Arab spring?

Abstract

The momentous ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have frequently been likened to the 1989 uprisings in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Former Soviet Union (FSU), which resulted in the subsequent collapse of Communism throughout almost all of Europe. Whilst the scope and depth of the political transformation in the MENA region continues to unfold, comparing the role of a key external actor, the European Union (EU), in both historic processes, can help give an idea of how the Arab Spring might develop. This chapter will argue that the two sets of uprisings are only partially analogous, and that the EU, the major external actor involved in the political and economic transformation of CEEs, is likely to play only a partial and limited role in the transitions in most MENA countries.