The announcement on Friday, October 20, of plans for the European Union (EU) to work closely with the seven nations of the Horn of Africa to defuse regional conflicts and prevent them spreading to other parts of Africa and the Middle East was seriously disrupted by the revelation of the expulsion of two European diplomats from Ethiopia.

The strategy, more of a diagnosis of the region's problems than a cure, aims to improve economic and political integration between Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and the transitional government in Somalia.

It aims to target the root causes of the region's instability, which the EU's executive body says are illegal migration, arms trafficking, drugs and heavy refugee movements.

EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner, Louis Michel, said the situation in the region had been steadily deteriorating as a consequence of growing Islamic extremism resulting from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"There is a concentration of conflicts of infrequent intensity," Michel said as he announced the new strategy.

The meat on the bones of the EU plan is contained in the Humanitarian Aid Commission's development fund for the 2008-2013 period. Under the budget's incentive envelope - some three billion euros - money can be used to compensate countries which make progress in good governance. Aside from money, European officials hope the plan will be focused on three main pillars - encouraging regional integration through organisations such as the African Union and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD); addressing national political issues that could have regional ramifications; and dealing with cross border threats to security and development in one of the world's poorest regions.

"There can be no development without security," Michel said. "When you think you have resolved a problem in a region, Wham! Another one pops up somewhere else and you realise that this new problem is already undoing what you achieved in the first place. It is absolutely atrocious."

And Michel was confronted with yet another problem exploded in his face following the expulsion of two European diplomats from Ethiopia a day before. Ethiopian authorities accuse the diplomats of trying to smuggle "alleged suspects" out of Ethiopia, according to statements by the government. The BBC confirmed that one of these suspects is Ethiopian lawyer, Yalemzewd Bekele, who recently did work for the EU mission in Addis Abeba. Swedish diplomat Bjorn Jonsson and Italian EU official Enrico Sborgi were deported on Thursday night.

Much of the press conference intended to be devoted to the Horn of Africa was upstaged by questions revolving around the expulsions and arrests.

Asked about his reaction to the recent news, Commissioner Michel said he had called Ethiopia's envoy in Brussels, Brehane G. Kirstos, for an explanation.

"There will be repercussions," he warned.

He also said he had been trying since Thursday to contact Prime Minister Meles Zenawi about the incident, without success.

"Usually, I can make contact quite easily with Prime Minister Meles," he told reporters.

A statement from Ethiopia's authorities said the attempt to take the Ethiopians out of the country "violates the sovereignty of the country while jeopardising the security of the nation".

"Any international organisation operating in Ethiopia needs to respect the laws of the host country and face punishment if it violates the law," the statement said.

Returning to the intended topic of the day, Michel insisted that a regional approach hitting several problems in a number of countries at once would be the only way to make real progress.

But ultimately, Michel said, the strategy would fail if the seven do not support it.

"If these states do not pick it up, if they do no not enter into a dynamic and proactive logic to resolve several common and interacting problems at once, we have no chance of succeeding in this endeavour."