The European Union has high stakes in the Middle East and North Africa regions. Its chief policy objective is to ensure peace and stability in the regions and to safeguard the EU's security interests.

Other plans include exporting the EU's ideology and core values, expanding the EU's business interests in the areas and ensuring energy supply from these areas.

Geographically, North Africa and the Middle East regions, particularly the areas close to the European Mediterranean coast, are near a large portion of the EU. Instability in the region as well as issues such as terrorism and immigration directly affect the safety of the EU, especially France, Italy and Spain. On the economic front, North Africa and the Middle East regions are rich in oil and gas, which the EU has been dependent on for a long time.

However, the crisis in Libya and other events in the Middle East have a great impact on the EU.

The EU's Middle East and North Africa strategies will have to shift focus on the building of a civil society and democratic reforms in these regions, on boosting the local social and economic development and trying to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

First, the promotion of democracy and the implementation of the political democratic reforms will for the first time become the EU's most important concerns and policy objective in the Middle East and North Africa. The safety concerns, energy security concerns and economic interests of the EU will be a part of this objective.

It should be noted that safety ranks first in EU's foreign policies, followed by democracy.

EU countries adapted their Middle East and North Africa policy over several years. It recognizes and wants to maintain the political status quo in these regions without directly aligning its international engagement and assistance policy with democratic reform and other political reform conditions.