Looking into the new direction

As we get ready to go into June, we must be as ambitious as possible. It is not just a question of optimism. It is not a matter of rhetoric. It is about building a better world. The pandemic has shown the key social and economic challenges we all face. It has revealed the competition and all the prejudices that exist between nations after we have spent seven decades talking about international cooperation. The option is not to keep going in that direction. The decision must be clear: to agree on the set of values that count for all of us and build the foundations of a new type of relations that are geared to promote solidarity, complementary and harmony.

The EU must be more creative in matters of crisis response

Josep Borrel, the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, addressed the UN Security Council yesterday. It was a long speech about several crisis situations. But the true message was about multilateralism. He stated the strong support the EU is providing to the UN and repeated the message that global problems do call for multilateral action. That was positive. But he was speaking to a very divided and weak Security Council. His words were certainly the right ones, but I can safely guess that their impact was negligible. The climate in the Council is not favourable to global or multinational responses. In addition, his description of the crisis was not creative. For instance, he spoke about the Sahel but added no new idea to what is already known. His concern was to show that the situation in the region is deteriorating – an important message – and that the EU and the UN are cooperating throughout the Sahel. But there was no indication of a line of action that should be followed to stop the fall.

The EU must be more realist in terms of crisis resolution. It should recognise that the current approaches are not yielding results. And it must come up with alternative paths. That would be a much stronger message and a way of giving strength to the EU’s role in matters of peace and security.

A new model of politics

The huge amount of resources that the European Union member States will have available for recovery is a golden opportunity to change what needs to be changed. That means, as I see it, to invest on health and social matters, on an economy that is friendlier to the environment, on the digital dimensions and on greater inclusion of those who have less income and insecure jobs. The funding of new projects should be guided by these concerns. This is a turning point and we cannot miss it. I am confident the Commission will provide the necessary guidance and will try to make sure the governments do respect the paradigm change. The real challenge is to prevent these monies are used to enrich the supporters of those in power. That will be the old tendency. But we are in a new era. The European Commission must ensure that the citizens in each State have enough power to stop the old clientelism and the ways of doing things that make some richer and the vast majority more vulnerable.

A stronger European Union

The European Recovery Fund, proposed by the President of the European Commission, was favourably received in the various capitals of the Member States. The Italians and the Spaniards were happy, on one side, and the Scandinavians as well, notwithstanding earlier positions regarding the need for conditionalities.

It is, in fact, a balanced plan, which reserves a good part of the resources for grant-type financing. And it adds an incredible amount of money to other resources already announced, either by the Commission or by the European Central Bank. Ursula von der Leyen demonstrated opportunity and vision. Her standing as head of the Commission comes out strengthened. Of course, behind all this, we can guess there is the support of Angela Merkel and Wolfgang Schäuble, who is now President of the German Federal Parliament and who continues to have a lot of power, on the domestic scene of his country. In the end, these things happen if the Germans are on board. They do not express it too loudly, but their voice is the determinant one in matters of common economic policies, agriculture excepted.

Opinion texts must be short and direct

I said before that brevity is a sign of intelligence. And I am still convinced that is the case. The problem is that I have a few friends who are highly intelligent but think that a long text, with many words and shooting in several directions, is what is expected from an intellectual. How can I change their minds? I try to tell them that there is very little patience for meandering texts of opinion. But they don’t believe me. And they keep copying and pasting their ideas every time they produce a new piece.

Africa Day 2020

Africa Day 2020 was ignored in Europe. The pandemic pushes everything else out of the screen. In past years, today’s celebration would be part of the news in various countries of Western Europe. Now, we are so focused on our surroundings that I get the impression we have forgotten that the world is bigger than our small neighbourhood.

Well, let me congratulate my friends in Africa and wish them a better governed and more united Continent.

China, Europe and the others

This is the wrong time to behave like a bully in the international arena. The Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, seems to know it. He appealed for a better relationship between his country and the US, now that we are at the door of a new Cold War, to paraphrase what he said. The words that call for cooperation instead of competition are the right words. He for sure is aware of that. And I am sure he is also mindful that for the time being the relationship with the US will not improve. Actually, it is possible to forecast deterioration. That is certainly not good. But he and his fellow leaders in Beijing have a chance to show that they mean business. They can establish a better relationship with the European Union. The Europeans are ready for that if it is a more balanced and equal one. Let us see if the Chinese are also willing. That could have an incredibly positive influence on the trade, global affairs, and the image of China in the world. There are negotiations going on between Brussels and Beijing. They should be concluded by September and send the right signal.

My friend gets special treatment

It is a serious mistake to follow double standards when you are leading a country. You cannot be exacting for some and permissive for others, particularly when it is a political friend that is overstepping the red line. That fundamentally undermines the leader’s credibility. Once lost, it is not easy to recuperate.

New disparities in a changing world

People were queuing this afternoon to get into the most expensive shops in a well-to-do area of Brussels. The other shops, normally patronised by the medium-income people had almost no customer. And then, there was this incredibly sad sight of closed restaurants and bars and a big hotel, a huge tower, completely empty. For me, it was a vivid example of how the crisis is seriously affecting some segments of society whilst others are just returning to their old habits, as if the past were back. But it is not.

The realism and the utopia

Today I came back to a statement that I used to make when discussing with overly ambitious but unrealistic people. I would tell them that during my walks in the bush, and I did many in distinct types of bushes, I could see that the baboons would go for the lizards. At a different level, the wild dogs would do the run, with extreme efficiency, to catch the impala. And the lions would focus on the kudus, a much bigger animal than the poor lizard or the gracious impala. No baboon would make any effort to do the impossible and try to catch a kudu.