EU FOREIGN policy chief Catherine Ashton called on Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to respond “as quickly as possible” to the popular uprising against his regime.
Ms Ashton’s remarks came as France, Britain and Germany reiterated their demands for a rapid transition to a new political leadership in Egypt. At a summit tomorrow, EU leaders will take stock of the upsurge of protest across a clutch of autocratic regimes in the Arab world.
In Brussels after talks with Tunisia’s new foreign minister, Ms Ashton stopped short of calling on Mr Mubarak to stand down immediately but said Europe needed to see movement from him.
After a separate meeting with the foreign minister of Yemen, another country which has seen protests in recent days, she said there should be a “national dialogue” to unlock progress towards meaningful multiparty democratic elections.
“What we’ve been very clear about is that Mr Mubarak has to respond to the will of the people and the demonstrations are a manifestation of that will,” Ms Ashton told reporters.
“He needs to consider extremely carefully that he really is moving forward and . . . as you know I speak on behalf of all of the EU countries. We need to see movement. There’s no question, but the words we used were transition and transformation.
“Those are words with a sense of urgency to them and we are calling upon Mr Mubarak . . . to do things as quickly as possible in order that people can see that they have been responded to.”
Tunisia’s newly installed foreign minister, Ahmed Ouneies, said the country was now on a liberal path after former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was forced from power.
“There was an interval because of a despot but now this interval is over, we are moving on and we are going back to the essence of Tunisia – Arab, Islamic, Mediterranean, Tunisian, but a liberal Tunisia, politically, economically,” he said.
The Tunisian people “have decided to jump on the bandwagon of industrialised countries” but they had nothing to teach Egyptians, Mr Ouneies added. “Its civilisation dates back 4,000 years, we do not export politics. We import concepts such as modernity, development, both economic and human.”
French president Nicolas Sarkozy said he wanted to see a concrete transition process in Egypt “without delay”.
British prime minister David Cameron said the transition “needs to start now”.
German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle said there must be change towards democracy immediately. “People want democratic change and they want it now.”