As Egypt appears to lurch back towards a pre-revolutionary security state, there's an urgent need for the EU to make a firm statement that the country is no longer moving towards a democratic future
It is not data protection and surveillance that produces the most complications for the transatlantic intelligence relationship, but rather America's use of armed drones to kill terrorist suspects.
Europe should remember that the elements in Egypt that are now likely to be on top of the political system – the Army, the judiciary, the intelligence services – represent a completely unreformed inheritance from the “deep state” as it existed under Mubarak.
This week the EU revealed its new human rights strategy, an ambitious plan to 'place human rights at the centre of its relations with all third countries'. The key challenge will be to develop realistic objectives and a clear vision how to achieve them without repeating mistakes of the past.
Despite President Obama extending its use of drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, the EU has been largely silent on the issue. But European leaders need to press the US to establish credible international standards to govern their use.
The killing of Osama bin Laden will have a significant impact on both al-Qaeda and the fight against Islamic terrorism by the US and its allies. President Obama now has the task – and the opportunity – to rethink how the US is conducting that fight.
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?
Tunisia's democrats have made an amazing start, after launching the wave of popular uprisings that are continuing to rock the Arab world. But they worry that the world will forget them as they embark upon the massive project of rebuilding a new Tunisia.
Europe went through its own year of democratic revolutions in 1989, yet its reaction to events in north Africa has lacked passion and purpose. European leaders meeting for a summit in Brussels must seize the opportunity to commit themselves to a strategy that puts them firmly on the side of democracy in the Middle East.
Obama’s increased use of drone attacks has left many people on both sides of the Atlantic unsure how to react. A new approach, based on human rights principles, is needed to assess their permissibility.