6.4.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 152/57
1.9.
The OSCE is a key pillar of the pan-European security architecture and as such should be consolidated for dialogue with Russia.
The Nord Stream 2 project should be put on hold for as long as Russia continues to violate international law in Ukraine, otherwise Moscow will gain greater leverage over eastern European countries. 1.10.
The European security architecture must be strengthened together with NATO; there should also be a dialogue on values within NATO. 1.11.
Civil society cooperation needs to be further strengthened in the transatlantic context.
The joint dialogue on citizens’ rights, resilience to disinformation, media freedom, climate action, social rights and consumer protection, and on supporting democracy, as guaranteed by the EESC in the EU, is particularly important in this connection.
In the long term, the transatlantic partnership can give way to transatlantic integration.
2.
The rule of law and liberal international order 2.1.
The EESC notes that there is an inseparable link between a liberal international order and a foundation of democracy and the rule of law at home.
If those democratic entities governed by the rule of law lose power in relation to authoritarian or totalitarian players, it will be impossible to uphold a liberal international order.
By analogy, if mercantilism and protectionism replace rules-based free trade, this will encourage those forces that question rule-of-law-based liberal democracy within countries too. 2.2.
The EESC believes a liberal international order to be the prerequisite for a rules-based, fair and sustainable trading system, and the achievement of the Paris climate targets, of the United Nations sustainable development goals as well as of social justice, equal opportunities, gender equality and non-discrimination.
An international order based on the law of the jungle, isolationism, efforts to be self-sufficient, and hierarchical power-based trade relations can neither cultivate and consolidate creative and innovative entrepreneurship that produces long-term economic success nor realise ambitious environmental and social policy objectives. 2.3.
The EESC therefore favours strengthening fundamental rules that govern interaction between states through the United Nations and its subsidiary agencies, and welcomes the idea of an Alliance of Democracies.
It was only thanks to the democratic influence of the United States that the international institutions could be set up at all after the second world war, and they only have a future with a United States on board that is democratic and open to the wider world. 2.4.
In a spirit of self-criticism, the EESC observes that after the end of the Cold War, not just European political players, but also organised civil society in Europe assumed for too long that the universal values of democracy and the rule of law were guaranteed.
However, there are powerful actors in the world who, although bound by these values under international law, have, in practice, fundamentally ignored them.
The preservation of our value-based order cannot be taken for granted. 2.5.
The values that guide countries and alliances based on democracy and the rule of law are values that characterise the multilateral order that the EU continues to uphold, though its own power to do so remains limited.
These values are rooted in the separation of secular and religious power, the Magna Carta, habeas corpus, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by the UN General Assembly.
They constitute a prerequisite for liberal democracy and the rule of law.
The EU, the USA and friendly liberal democracies share these values.
Article 30 of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights expressly states that: ‘Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.’ 2.6.
Common to liberal democracies is that their existence is inextricably linked to a pluralistic, independent and vibrant civil society.
3.
The importance of transatlantic relations for Europe’s place in the world 3.1.
The geopolitical changes over the past two decades have caused serious harm to the liberal international order and significantly weakened key international organisations.
The dominant forces have been an increasingly aggressive ruling elite in the People’s Republic of China and a dangerous heightening of isolationism on the part of the United States. 3.2.
Given its own social tensions and the global nature of the challenge, the United States cannot manage the task of preserving a liberal international order alone.
The US population regards costly military operations in distant parts of the world with great scepticism.
As Afghanistan so grimly illustrates, there is an urgent need for a new, credible strategy among liberal democracies and for greater European involvement, in order to relieve the burden on the USA.
This must not be limited to military capabilities, albeit these will play a role.