Álvaro de Vasconcelos was the Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies between May 2007 and May 2012.
The underlying reason for this is the Europeans' fear that Islamists could gain power. Many still consider authoritarian Arab regimes to be the lesser evil.
Political Islam is not a homogeneous bloc.
Tunisia is extremely dependent on economic conditions in Europe, which is why it also experienced shockwaves from the euro crisis.
Of course former colonial powers are always more present and influential. They're the ones who need to defend the EU's values on the frontlines.
When it comes to France, it seems to me the fundamental question is how a former colonial power should interact with its former colony.
It's wrong to focus only on economic cooperation and then to hope that a sufficiently stable system will become democratic more or less by itself. The EU needs to urge its neighbors to pursue both economic stability and political modernization in equal measures.
Andrew Wyeth
Mary Wigman
Giorgio de Chirico
Harry Bassett
Paul G. Hoffman
Guy Endore
Thomas Piketty
E. W. Scripps
John Michael Talbot
Ernst Grunfeld
Phillip Lim
Ralph Yarborough