Sparring Within European Parliament Over Algeria

Mrs. Salima Yenbou, a member of the European Parliament, on behalf of the Greens’ Party, criticized the European Union regarding how it deals with the countries of the southern shore of the Mediterranean basin, including Algeria, which has recently been criticized by this parliamentary institution regarding the human rights situation.

• An MP for the Greens’ Party (of Algerian origin) said that Algeria is the country that benefits least from the aid provided by the European Union within the framework of the “European Neighborhood Policy” that was launched some 25 years ago, within the framework of what was known as the “Barcelona Process”, as Brussels called for Reconsidering the European Neighborhood Policy adopted by the old countries of the continent with their southern counterparts, in comparison to its eastern borders, especially with regard to aid.

• The deputy of the Greens’ group, in her address, expressed her displeasure with the current policy: “… unfortunately, we have to admit that our policy towards our southern neighbors has a very bad record”, she stressed.

She thus criticized what she considered as “the European Union’s satisfaction with the minimum service for the Euro-Mediterranean space, which is marked by the lack of aid and the large number of soothing speeches …”.

• The European MP took to task the European Union’s decision to set the budget allocated to the European Neighborhood countries within the framework of the Neighborhood Policy, which did not exceed 23 billion euros over the next seven years (2021/2027), which is a very small amount, according to the MP, compared to the huge EU budget which is estimated at 1074.3 billion euros.

Salima Yenbou admits that no country-specific accounts have been made, and funds have not yet been distributed between the eastern and southern axes of the European Neighborhood Policy, but it is known that the Eastern European countries will deduct the lion’s share of the meager budget, while the southern Mediterranean countries will be unequally divided.

“Therefore, she stated, the crumbs will be distributed very unevenly between the countries of the southern Mediterranean, and Algeria is usually the one heavily affected among these countries,” as she put it.

• According to the European MP’s perspective, the transformation of the Mediterranean into a graveyard for dreamers of moving to the northern bank through “death boats” is the responsibility of the European Union’s politicians who failed to adopt a policy based on supporting development in the southern Mediterranean countries in a manner that preserves the curbing of illegal immigration, instead of the temptation to emigrate, as it constitutes wealth for European countries.

• This sharp criticism comes weeks after the insidious European Parliament’s resolution which criticized the human rights situation in Algeria, which, as is well known, left a strong official and partisan Algerian response, targeting especially France, as the party that planned this malicious resolution under the table, in order to embarrass Algeria, at a time when bilateral relations are in a state of stalemate.

• The European MP’s criticism of the lack of aid allocated to Algeria within the framework of the European Neighborhood Policy would lessen the impact and credibility of European regulations that interfere in the internal affairs of southern Mediterranean countries, notably Algeria.