There are 10 good reasons for Europeans to support enhanced UN status for the Palestinians. There is also an eleventh reason: the 27 EU nations can show that they count on the world stage if they are able to stick together.
Europeans have much to gain from unity during any vote at the United Nations supporting Palestinian statehood. However the best response to a complex situation is to abstain. A response to ECFR's recent memo in favour of a 'yes' vote.
Egypt's transition towards democracy is a delicate work in progress. The identity of the new leader – the new 'pharaoh' – of a third of all Arabs will be crucial if the transition is to be a successful one.
Berlin's failure to support intervention in Libya but willingness to arm Saudi Arabia shows the central contradiction in a foreign policy that is increasingly driven by the needs of a geoeconomic power's export industry.
Egypt will struggle to progress towards democracy unless some form of military reform takes place. The first challenge is to make sure that any moves towards reform are palatable to the entrenched interests of Military Inc.
After the euphoria of toppling Hosni Mubarak several months ago, little has been seen of the reforms demanded by protestors in Egypt. Democratisation is a long and complex process, but it is important that the rule of law and broad political participation are given prominence.
The European Union needs to learn the lessons from the past as it wrestles with using military support to underpin its humanitarian assistance in Libya. This will allow it to develop more credible intervention forces for future crisis – ones that might actually work.
The reputation of the UN and Ban Ki-moon may hinge upon the outcome in two of the world's trouble spots – South Sudan and Palestine. South Sudan in particular remains a crucial test of the institution's ability to handle weak states.
European countries are playing a central role in the Libyan intervention, and the EU is looking to help the transitions in Tunisia and Egypt. But before Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire, setting off the sequence of protests, how well did Europe perform when dealing with its southern neighbourhood last year?
Agreement over Europe's performance is not the aim of ECFR's European Foreign Policy Scorecard. The aim is to encourage serious debate about the goals, tools, resources, difficult trade offs and moral dilemmas of Europe's foreign policy – even if that means that readers strongly disagree with our conclusions.