The European Union, Lebanon, and the Syrian refugees

The purpose of this article consists of assessing the coherence of the European Union external action between its relations with Lebanon and its policy towards the Syrian refugees. With this objective, I will contrast the objectives of the Common Foreign and Security Policy and those of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. The former is aimed at promoting stability in Lebanon and spreading to that country the European views of democracy, human rights and good governance. The latter wants the refugees to remain in neighbouring countries (like Lebanon) and prevent their arrival into Europe. The results of this work highlight that the presence of such a high number of refugees in a country with very limited resources, a clientelist and inefficient public administration, and an unstable political system is leading to open tensions that will grow if those refugees remain in Lebanon indefinitely. Therefore, the obsession for treating the refugees as a security threat is weakening the coherence of the EU external action and undermining the achievement of other objectives.