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Kaja Kallas rejected claims that Europe is facing a civilisational decline that could lead to its disappearance in response to US criticism about the continent’s trajectory.
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The EU’s chief diplomat pushed back against the premise that “woke and decadent Europe” is facing civilisational erasure. Her comments come after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Munich Security Conference that the collective West needs renewal after decades of ill-designed policies from mass migration to a cult of climate.
During a panel discussion hosted by Euronews at the Munich Security Conference, she lamented a constant “European bashing” in international circles despite what she described as excellent standards of living and societal achievements.
Last year, a controversial US national security review said Europe is facing an existential threat unless it reverses course on some of its landmark policies, citing migration as a destabilizing factor. It also suggested that the US administration would provide support to political parties resisting Brussels policies from within.
Rubio echoed those concerns in Munich even as he stressed the US and Europe are intertwined by a common heritage and historical ties. Still, he lambasted “open borders” migration, a “cult-like” approach to climate policies and what he called a deliberate strategy of de-industrilalisation that has impoverished and rendered the West weaker.
Reacting to the speech, Kallas told Euronews editor Maria Tadeo during a panel discussion that Rubio’s remarks were aimed at “us, but also at a domestic audience.”
She stressed his message of transatlantic unity is important but also noted that there are issues in which the two sides cannot agree while defending European values.
“The message that America and Europe are intertwined, have been in the past and will be in the future, this is important,” she said on Sunday. “It also clear that we don’t see eye to eye on all issues and this will remain the case” going forward.
“Coming from a country that is number 2 in the Press Freedom Index hearing criticism from a country that is 58 in the same index…It’s interesting,” Kallas added in reference to the US, which has often portrayed the EU as politically correct and close to censorship.
Kallas also argued that the EU remains an attractive political project for many countries looking to join from Ukraine to the Western Balkans, signaling the opposite of decline.
“Contrary to what some may say: woke, decadent Europe is not facing civilisational erasure. In fact, people still want to join our club,” she stressed.
In her remarks, she also warned against rewarding Russia at the negotiating table as a new round of bilateral talks between Kyiv and Moscow brokered by the United States to end the war is set to take place next week in Geneva.
“The greatest threat Russia presents right now is that it gains more at the negotiation table than it has achieved on the battlefield,” she said. “Today, Russia is broken.”
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