You’re better than you think if you do it right. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Gueterres holds in the case of the Charlemagne prize award ceremony the often self-Europeans in the mirror, says Bernd Riegert.
1200 years ago Charlemagne from Aachen created the first “European state”: the namesake of the European policy-price
Four days after the European election-a view from outside the European Union is doing quite well. Europe is mostly busy with itself, after the parties of the centre in the European Parliament have lost weight and in some countries right-wing populists and nationalists alarmingly increased. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Gueterres, warned at the Charlemagne prize ceremony in Aachen, Germany, before an increase of hateful, divisive politics in Europe, but at the same time, he also recalled the opportunities of European unification. Europe, the encouraging message of the UN Secretary-General is to appear in a world which is chaotic, disorderly, and more fragile than even a few years ago, important, or even indispensable.
The EU with its approach of rule-based relations between States and a peaceful balance of interests should be a model for the Rest of the world, says the former Portuguese Prime Minister Guterres. He knows what he’s talking about because he has helped shape the Integration of the EU 20 years ago. In the global scale of the leaders of the United Nations, Europe is an essential pillar of the “multilateralism”, i.e. the cooperation of the various States and interest groups to the solution of global problems such as climate change, Migration, poverty or the digitization of the economy. Globally, the EU is a Bastion of humanity and a Bastion of human rights, in spite of the deficiencies in the uncoordinated on defense migration set policy.
For cooperation, against Trump and co.
Europe Correspondent Bernd Riegert
The Europeans should be proud of the judgment of an experienced politician, who is traveling around the globe. You should not be smaller than you are and, occasionally, beyond your own problems look. The newly crowned Charlemagne prize of the carrier follows the passionate Appeals of the French President, Emmanuel Macron, came into his plea for the “re-birth” of a sovereign of Europe for a stronger common foreign policy. Macron had received the Charlemagne prize, the most important political distinction on the continent, in the past year. The price for Guterres is also a reminder to put up the egomaniac and nationalists like US presidents, Donald Trump, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro resist.
The next big challenge for the world and also Europe the of human-caused warming of the earth. The Secretary-General of the United Nations is concerned and frustrated that the fight against climate change is much too slow. Now he relies on the new energy of the young people in Europe to want something to move. Europe had economies by 2050 climate neutral, and its tax system is modified so that the carbon dioxide emissions will be more expensive. Confessions are not enough, deeds must, is the message of the Charlemagne prize-winner. And so we’re back in the European election. The has shown that Europeans and Europeans, at least in the West of Europe for the protection of the climate to mobilize.
This Momentum should include the EU-politicians and the members of the new Parliament now, and in the spirit of Antonio Guterres to show that you can be in the increasingly chaotic world an example of extraordinary Action. Populism and nationalism lead to a downward spiral that is his correct analysis. In Europe and around the world. The European citizens must not look only inward, but must recognize its responsibility in the international community. “Europe is too important to fail.” This is the core sentence of the speech made by Antonio Guterres, in Aachen, Germany. He has, in many respects, right. Hopefully Europe has listened to him.