“დიდება, peste et bello liberas us Domine”, Said the ancient medieval ejaculation. And the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, comes a thousand years after his recovery and describes the present moment: “We must be ready for a world in which hunger will appear: first we had the plague. [el coronavirus]; “Then we have a war and now there is a famine.”
The war, Borrell said, was “an awakening of the Europeans.” The EU High Representative for Co-operation and Security acknowledged that the Europeans were trying to “bring the war” out of their “fantasy”, but in this case it clashed again: “And it must happen. , Not awakening, but normalcy, something in which we live constantly: the realization that in addition to soft power, we must be a solid force. We must have a certain coercive force, a certain force to respond to someone else’s coercion. “And the most important task is to overcome our security weaknesses, to reverse our energy dependence and to adapt our institutions to the way we really need to be in power.”
The High Representative for Cooperation and Security took part in a debate organized by the ECFR on Tuesday afternoon and was moderated by his director in Madrid, José Ignacio Toreblanca, where he analyzed the crisis Europe is experiencing: “In the member states, as well as in the European Union and NATO.”
Borrell also criticizes Europe’s growing energy dependence on Russia: “We should have done this in 2014, when Russia invaded Crimea, and since then we have been saying that we should reduce our energy dependence on Russia, but we are growing every year. . Now is the time to take it really seriously. Climate policy and security policy have never been so hand-picked as they are now. “Our security depends on our energy independence.”
The head of European diplomacy also asks existential questions: “Who are we? How do we work? What do we want to be? Our decision-making process, of course, must be re-established. What about expansion? As for our spheres of influence. Finally, prepare for the global food and energy crisis and fight for the narrative around it. We must be ready for the world in which hunger will appear: first we had the plague; Then we have a war and now there is a famine, mainly not for us but for a very important part of the world that is heavily dependent on food exports, especially wheat, from Russia and Ukraine. 30% of world exports come from here. And it will create the perfect storm, along with energy prices, along with the food crisis, a situation where we will have to show that we are truly a geopolitical force, mobilizing our financial instruments and our influence. Finally, our fiscal rules need to be revised if we are to increase our military capabilities and our social unity, deal with crises around the world, and subsidize high energy prices.
In short: “This is an existential crisis for Europe. It is true that Europe is built on crisis. But this is a specific type of crisis that deals with the essence, the essence of who we are, what we are going to do, and what kind of world we want to build.
“We need to build defense at the level of our needs,” Borrell said. “The debate between NATO and the European Union must end. I do not want to go back to the idea of alternative or filler. Stop arguing about the sex of angels. The Americans told us, well, do you want to be stronger? Გ Do it. Გ Do it. And when I write my memoirs, I will tell you how it happened, how we broke the taboo and who did it, and who was too big for it and who was less so. The main thing is that it happened. We suddenly realized that we had a fund that we used to supply weapons to our partners in Africa when we were training their troops. And why not supply weapons to our partners when they are invading? The taboo has been broken, but from now on we have to build on it. This can not be an exception and then go back to the old normalcy and this is what we have to say for the future, because the danger will not disappear. I do not know how this war will end. The war will end, but I do not know how and the danger will not disappear. The threat to our safety will not disappear. And we have to assume that we have to get rid of addictions because the military use of interdependence is a reality. The world should try to reduce the amount of money received by Russia from oil and gas. The whole world and not just Europeans. Russia’s self-confidence, its ability to create destruction, to cause problems, depends on its wealth and financial capabilities from oil. The best we can do is cut it off, isolate Russia from the oil and gas markets. Saying this is easier said than done, I know. But that is, in recent years, we knew it would be a threat, we were not doing it.
“If we can not reduce Russia’s gas consumption by 50% in one year, it will be a failure on our part,” Borrell said. But it will depend on the availability of gas from other countries. What we can not say to people is that we are going to overcome this crisis and become safer at zero cost. It has value and you have to pay because otherwise the cost will be much higher. This is an unusual asymmetric shock. From the point of view of refugees, it is completely incomprehensible, 5 million or 4.5 million people are crossing our eastern borders and not our western borders. It is also completely asymmetric in terms of energy dependence. Attitudes in Spain and Portugal are almost zero. 100% dependence in Hungary. Therefore, we must understand that the position of the member states can not be the same. ”
In this conflict, says Borrell, “there is also a struggle of models over who will dominate. My freedom, my ability to understand what is happening, my brain works thanks to the information it receives. If there is systematic bias in the information received, I lose my sense of reality. And this is one of the most important threats to any society, the loss of control over the quality of information. “And when the quality of information is systematically distorted by the use of powerful technological means by political will, then democracy, our way of life, our understanding of coexistence are threatened.”
As for the relationship between Moscow and Beijing, Borrell said: “In the medium term, I do not think that what is happening is that Russia’s role will help China much. “No, I do not think China is very happy with what is happening.”
“For us,” Borrell says abundantly, “globalization has been a kind of Westernization, and we still believe in it.” And we are completely wrong. We believe that the world is still ruled by us intellectually, under the ancient influence of our imperial past. And we believe they will follow us because we are right. But you need others to recognize that you are right. Nothing is automatic. You have to win it. And you need not only persuasion, but also influence and support. ”
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Source: El Diario
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
