European diplomat: UAE has failed to influence the EU

On January 9, the United Arab Emirates organized an exhibition in the European Parliament in which it highlighted its activities to provide relief to the victims around the world in an effort to polish its image internationally.

Before the opening of the exhibition by the President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani, a joint seminar was chaired by the President of the Federal National Council in the UAE Amal Al Qubaisi, and member of the Spanish European Parliament Antonio Lopez-Estoriz White, Chairman of the European-UAE Parliamentary Friendship Group.

According to the current article, written by European diplomat Eldar Mamidov, who is in charge of parliamentary committees on parliamentary relations with Iran, the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant, the UAE public relations campaign has been undermined by Abu Dhabi's humanitarian record.

"This activity is part of a campaign of political pressure within Europe," Mamidov said in an article published by the Lob Blog website. "What distinguishes this campaign is the UAE's move away from attacking its traditional adversaries, who were identified by the writer in Qatar, Iran, Muslims.

He added that the UAE preferred to focus on a positive agenda based on providing humanitarian assistance to the affected areas, such as Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia and even Europe, through the financing of refugee camps in Greece.

In his speech on migration management, Tajani said that he was one of the main challenges facing the EU.

This is why the focus on the EU's needs in this sensitive area is seen as a more effective long-term approach than attacking regional competitors, especially when a woman speaks fluent English like Qubaisi.

However, this has not failed to reveal the limited success of the current public relations campaign, which the UAE has spared no effort to make it look good and sophisticated.

The author pointed out that even the venue of the meeting is dubious, because of the selection of the "friendship" parliamentary - UAE instead of an official body of the European Parliament.

Although the friendship groups are not entitled to speak on behalf of the European Parliament, they are in fact exploited by authoritarian regimes to find a foot in the European Parliament so that they can lobby and collect votes.

In this case, the UAE-European Friendship Group acted as an official spokesperson for Abu Dhabi, but the image of the United Arab Emirates as a superhuman power is undermined by the harsh realities on the ground.

The EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stilianides, has repeatedly praised the "common values" that are believed to link the EU and the UAE.

Suppression and intolerance
But the writer Mamidov reserved it when he reported the exposure of the human rights activist Ahmed Mansur from a trial for exercising his right to freedom of expression, as well as suffered by British academic Matthew Hedges, who has only recently recovered his freedom after spending five months in solitary confinement On charges of spying.

These abuses and other human rights violations in the UAE are contained in a new report published by Human Rights Watch entitled "UAE: injustice, intolerance and repression, unfair trials in the country and possible war crimes in Yemen."

The writer highlighted the great difference between UAE letters and procedures at home; they support migrants and refugees beyond their borders, but they treat their migrant workers harshly.

According to a UN report, migrant workers in the UAE are subject to severe exploitation, working in harsh conditions for more than 12 hours a day, along with problems related to their salaries, passports, and many other abuses.

The presentation included impressive figures indicating that the total foreign aid of the UAE between 2013 and 2017 is equivalent to $ 32 billion, but noted that the concept of "foreign assistance" is quite different from the concept of "development assistance" or "humanitarian".

To prove its credibility, Abu Dhabi has to deal with allegations that some of the humanitarian aid funds provided to Egypt have been earmarked to support the military dictatorship there, the author said.

woman
Abu Dhabi, for its awareness of the importance and rights of women in the Western public, highlighted the progress made by the UAE in the area of ​​women's rights. Abu Dhabi announced during the event in Brussels that the UAE had unveiled 50% next year.

But Mamedouf said Abu Dhabi ignored some important information that the rulers of the seven emirates would appoint half of the members of the new council, likely that if women failed to win this percentage, Abu Dhabi will divide the proportion to achieve the desired image.

He stressed in this regard that these elections are not expected to be fair and competitive, not to mention that the Parliament itself does not have real authority in the UAE.

The writer pointed out that these events aim to consolidate the value of members working on UAE transactions instead of attracting new members, pointing to the failure of what the UAE lobby group called the failure of the adoption of the European Parliament resolution demanding the release of activist Ahmed Mansour in October 2018, or to prevent the imposition of sanctions on UAE officials accused of participating in human rights violations.

In conclusion, the writer stated that the UAE lobby could not prevent the EU countries from calling for the sale of arms to the UAE and Saudi Arabia in accordance with the decision of the European Parliament on the situation in Yemen in October 2018. Since these are the official positions of the European Parliament and not statements Friendship Group.

The European official advised Abu Dhabi that in order to improve the image of the UAE with the European Union, it must make real reforms, such as ending the internal repression and violent intervention in Yemen, instead of resorting to propaganda campaigns embellished in the European Parliament.