EU officials in the MENA region: a two-sided sense of disillusionment

The "Arab Spring" posed major emotional challenges to European diplomats. Not only came the events as a ground-shaking surprise, they also obliged European representatives to take sides, either in favour of the protesters or in support of the incumbent regimes. Sympathies for the demonstrators’ open embrace of European norms and values merged with discomfort about incalculable consequences potentially following the former rulers’ eventual fall. With a focus on Egypt, this contribution analyses how and why European diplomats reacted to the revolutionary movement. Hope and hesitation were dominant after Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, emotions that however got increasingly replaced by pessimism and detestation the more Egypt returned to military dictatorship. With their reminiscences to Europe’s own transformation history and the EU’s self-perception as "force for good", a two-sided sense of disillusionment took hold among European representatives: about the regime’s eventual unwillingness to reform, and about their very own incapacity to meaningfully support change. Based on extensive research in Cairo and Brussels, this paper analyses the emotions that escorted the actions of officials from the European Union and its member states in Egypt. In a multi-level perspective, it considers EU initiatives coming from Brussels, activities by the European Delegation in Cairo, and the work of European embassies. With its findings, the article contributes to the debates about "normative power Europe", the rise of autocracies, and the overall limits of EU democracy promotion.