BERLIN – revolutions of the candidate countries through the Middle East have inspired millions of Europeans who remembers the awe felt when Communist regimes crumbled across the former Soviet bloc. But together with voltage come questions, fear and doubt — as the flames shoot on the continent's rebellion very doorstep.
Europe has long seen itself as a champion of democracy, and its ideals tested with real-life consequences of democratic changes sweeping a region that provides a large part of its immigrant population, which has become ever more increases in recent years.
Many fear a flood of hard-hitting European coasts, a concern made urgent crush thousands of Tunisians who turned up in Italy after the North African country overthrew its autocrat, and sign to Libya — long a gateway of illegal emigration to Europe — is on the verge of implosion.
Questions concerning the availability of the dolls also the spirit of rebellion also can take root among the European-based Arabs, which often accuse their host countries racism and blame the colonial past of many of their problems.
"All these problems, which led to revolutions in the Arab world is also daily life in France and is more and more unbearable," wrote Yacine Djaziri, if Bondy Blog Chronicles life in immigrant-heavy Paris suburbs, which exploded in riots in 2005, recently.
"How do we fix it? Do we set the us on fire? Be resigned? Get angry? Rebellion? "
Balanced with fears are call for hope and solidarity: some European officials on Monday proposed a Marshall Plan for the Middle East, drawing a explicitly parallel to the continent's U.S.-funded reconstruction after the second WORLD WAR, which bears witness to the extent of the drama that played out across the Mediterranean.
But Europeans ask: who is to pay, when they are swallowed up in a debt crisis that threatens to darken the future of an entire generation? "Germany pumps enough money in the foreign countries already," said Marcel Mueller, 27, who work in the service industry.
Germans can imagine the burden which they can take to help finance a Marshall Plan for the Arab world: 20 years after reunification, they still charged an additional "solidarity tax" to subsidize the reconstruction in the former Communist Eastern — is estimated at some euro1.3 billion ($ 1.78 billion).
European Investment Bank President Philippe Maystadt estimated Tuesday, in order to support a transition to democracy in Tunisia, Egypt and other countries in the region, it would have to borrow euro6 billion (8.2 billion USD) over the next three years.
Pictures of might alleviate of migrants, mainly from Tunisia, washing on the small Sicilian fishing village Lampedusa struck many as advance notice of mass-scale flight to the European Union. Explosion of rebellion in Libya — this time, be discouraged by a bloody crackdown — has worsened fears of a migration crisis.
' It is an issue that concerns us all, because the situation drove many to arrive, "said Alberto Brizzi, a waiter uniforms at a Rome trattoria. "People take off thinking they can find something better than in their country. But it is not so. "
As Tunisians flooded realindkomsterne Lampedusa earlier this month, Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni of anti-immigrant Northern League fear that terrorists and al-Qaida supporters could have come among what he described as a "biblical exodus" of migrants.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has urged the leaders to recognize the "unique opportunity right now to promote democracy, human rights and civil liberties in our neighborhood."
But Europe has been struggling for years with its most high profile project to promote partnership with a neighbouring Muslim nation: EU membership negotiations with Turkey, widely seen as a model for how Islam and democracy can flourish together, all, but has fallen from each other — is in no small measure due to hostility from Germany and France.
The promise of EU membership was a key factor in Turkey implements the democratic, judicial and economic reforms have transformed the nation to a budding power. Now, with Europe a distant dream, still it is forging closer ties with Iran, Russia and other often in conflict with the West.
A recent survey of Germany's ARD public broadcaster showed 43 percent of those polled said they are concerned about the upheaval in the Middle East, compared with 41 percent, said they feel optimistic, according to the study of 1,000 Germans. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 1 to 3.4.1 percentage points.
The top fears was instability and chaos with 47 percent listing it is a concern, followed by 25 percent, which concerned a flood of immigrants-hitting Europe's coasts and 21 percent who fear Islamists will take power.
Last week the EU pledged euro258 million ($ 347 million) in aid to Tunisia from now until 2013. In Brussels promised Monday, EU Foreign Ministers support for "people of the southern Mediterranean countries and their legitimate hopes and expectations for democratic change, social justice and economic development."
The call for an ambitious reconstruction program, however, comes at a time when EU countries already smarting from having to bail out both Greece and Ireland from the brink of bankruptcy. Lengthy tug-of-war over these rescues shows how difficult it will be to achieve any meaningful level for the Middle East.
Experts say the European view democratic change in the Middle East far more carefully than the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, naming the threat from Islamic fundamentalism as the continent's "great concern."
"New leaders could take power whose policies would not be positive to the objectives of the EUROPEAN UNION and NATO," said Tomas Karasek, an analyst with the Association for International Affairs in Prague. "This is a major threat."
Other Europeans say world must include a historic opportunity in the Middle East — regardless of the risks.
"We should make it clear that we are on the same page as the democracy movement," Danish lawmaker Naser Khader said.
"We should not allow ourselves to be threatened by reports of refugee flows. It is in our interest to North Africa, the Arab world will be democratic. "
