Europe must strengthen its ability to provide security and defence as the United States increasingly focuses on the Pacific rather than the Atlantic, according to speakers at the World in Progress forum in Barcelona, organised by Grupo PRISA.
Jaume Duch, the Catalan government’s councillor for European Union and Foreign Action, said responsibility for European security could no longer be delegated. He argued that Washington’s distancing from Europe did not begin with Donald Trump, but dates back to Barack Obama’s presidency, and warned against assuming that a future change of administration in the White House would restore previous relations.
Pablo García Berdoy, a former Spanish ambassador to the European Union, said Europe should regard its own defence as a matter of responsibility. He stressed that this did not necessarily mean militarisation, expansion or increased spending, but rather fulfilling a public policy obligation at a time when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created a direct security challenge for the continent.
García Berdoy also called for deeper European integration, arguing that individual states are unable to address major international challenges on their own. He questioned whether nationalism could provide the public goods citizens expect, including security, without closer cooperation among European countries.
Beyond defence, the former ambassador warned of a systemic crisis that could threaten the future of Europe’s social model. He also raised concerns about the continent’s response to an industrial revolution that, in his view, Europe has failed to lead, and called for continental alliances to be rebuilt in response to a new political bipolarity.
Duch linked democracy and the European Union, while presenting the bloc’s institutions as a moderating force against the growth of populism.
Sources: El País Internacional.