Don’t insult the object of your desire with promises you both know you can’t keep. If you lack the cash for that magnificent bunch of fragrant roses, resist the temptation to brandish a fraying fake bouquet instead. There has to be a better alternative, and you’re unlikely to get a positive response.
And as for trying to bully or force someone into partnership with you – a little tip: it’s unlikely to go down well.
In this respect, the EU makes a lousy suitor. After reeling in panic and reacting in slow motion to the – to an extent predicted – dramatic surge this year in refugees and other migrants arriving, the EU is now trying a more comprehensive, strategic approach.
The EU also plans to send cash and other aid “over there”, in the hope of dissuading more refugees and others from wanting to reach Europe, risking their lives.
A rather similar formula worked for Spain several years ago when it was the main EU arrival point for people smugglers’ boats.
Bilateral deals with Morocco and Mauritania significantly reduced the arrival of “pateras”, as Spaniards nicknamed those boats.
But Spain came under fire from aid organisations (NGOs) at the time for trying to make African countries the “gatekeepers of Europe”.
The NGOs also raised concerns about possible human rights abuses against would-be migrants blocked at the border.
They complained that the bilateral agreements, sorely lacking in transparency, smacked more of backroom deals.
Similar concerns are now being directed at the EU as a whole. As flowers go, the extra aid package doesn’t even make the gaudy plastic category. The EU offered €3.6bn ($3.9bn; £2.5bn) to improve life in a number of African countries.
This in addition to the €20bn it already gives in aid to Africa.
Somalia’s distinctly unimpressed Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke put it to the BBC that Africa needed investment, not charity, to improve its economies. The same as the US, the EU or anywhere else in the world, he said.
Source EU
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