“Let’s not be overawed by the sound and fury. We must hear it, not ignore it, while remaining true to our core principles as Europeans”, said Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, at the launch of the ‘Book of Europe’ (“Firsthand visions of the future of Europe”) on Thursday 27 February.
This collection, compiled at the suggestion of Daniel Risch, Prime Minister of Liechtenstein, while his country held the presidency of the Committee of Ministers in 2024, brings together the testimonies and thoughts of more than 30 heads of state, prime ministers and foreign ministers from all over Europe.
“It shows us that behind each of these public figures there is a woman or a man who has a very personal relationship with the European ideal”, explains Mr Berset.
The book also shows the diversity of the priorities set by leaders: “The main challenge for the future of Europe is security”, says Denys Shmyhal, Prime Minister of Ukraine. “The hallmark of Europe is our tolerance and our solidarity”, says his Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sánchez, while Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has, “We need a new European doctrine of sovereignty” as the title of his text.
These are just a few examples of the diversity of approaches that are characteristic of a continent where we are able to “share spaces with people with whom we don’t necessarily agree”, says Alain Berset.
Asked by Agence Europe about the ‘Democratic Pact’ he announced, the Secretary General said that “the challenge is not to compare ourselves with other continents, but to measure what has been achieved here”, “to work and work again on the importance of our attachment to democratic values, without which it is difficult to have a stable rule of law and strong support for human rights”.
“It all depends on the education” that introduces the rules of the game, he concludes.
“For democracy to work, everyone has to play by the same rules. You can’t have a good football match if the other side is playing according to the rules of boxing”.
This work is all the more important given that “we’re going through a time when it feels like everything is going in the wrong direction”.
It’s also a time when “the opportunities to make something happen are the greatest”.
Link to the ‘Book of Europe’ website: https://aeur.eu/f/foh (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)