The European Union needs a more coherent and vigorous foreign policy to effectively address the many challenges the planet is facing, Princess Mabel said in a well received address at the Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp Symposium in The Hague. The princess, daughter-in-law to Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, spoke about "Forming a global partnership - the European contribution".
From a "European perspective, we are facing a double challenge. While the problems that threaten us are escalating and increasingly requiring global responses, Europe is losing its relative power and its ability to lead the world in finding cooperative solutions", Princess Mabel said.
"Europe's influence is diminishing in the changing world order. For us Europeans, geopolitics used to be about finding our place in a uni-polar world. But that world is rapidly disappearing. So, how should Europe deal with this double challenge of growing global problems and reduced global power?", the Dutch princess asked.
"Europe is a continent of small and medium-sized countries. We face a clear choice. We can either band together with other like-minded states to take on these formidable forces. Or we can try to retain our autonomy and ultimately lose influence over our fate", she said.
She pointed out where Europe has been successful - when it cooperated, and where it has failed, when it didn’t. "Europe underperforms partly because its foreign policy institutions are under-developed, and its assets limited and fragmented. The EU currently spends more money on cleaners for its Brussels buildings than on supporting the foreign policy team of Javier Solana, the EU High Representative", princess Mabel said.
"It seems pretty obvious to me that we, as Europeans, have a clear choice. Either we can take our future into our own hands by forging a more muscular and united approach to the world. Or we let our fate increasingly be decided by other masters. (..) "
A common foreign policy will allow individual countries to increase their global influence. And a strong European voice in support of human rights, democracy, and other open society values will not just benefit Europeans; it will be good for the world", she concluded.
© RB; Photos (archives) by © Royal Press Europe
Comments