Press Release
Brussels, 16 November 2018
On the occasion of the third anniversary of the publication of the revised European Neighbourhood Policy (18 November 2015), EuroMed Rights issues a paper to assess its implementation from a human rights perspective.
Focused on the role given to human rights and civil society, and on EU’s political and financial support in that regard, the paper represents a unique comparison of available information on the Partnership Priorities agreed between the EU and Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia, on EU’s financial support in that context, and on EU reporting on implementation so far.
On the basis of intelligence gathered and available information, EuroMed Rights observed that ENP-South focus’ on ‘mutual ownership’ and greater differentiation between partner countries had as an effect to marginalise human rights. Some provisions bear the risk of doing harm, for instance when it comes to programmes relating to migration management and security/fighting terrorism. In addition to that, three years after the launch of the revised ENP, it is hard to see how the EU implementation reports assess whether the central ENP objective of ‘stabilisation’ has been met. They are descriptive, and do not provide outcome analysis nor human rights impact assessments.
As a result, EuroMed Rights analysis proposes eight recommendations to improve the implementation of the ENP-South.