European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on the 9th of March that the European Union must be prepared to use force more decisively because it can no longer rely solely on rules-based systems to protect itself from threats, Reuters reports.
Von der Leyen also stressed the need to assess whether EU institutions and systems help or undermine the bloc’s credibility. Addressing EU ambassadors, the EC President said she would always defend a rules-based system built with allies, but that it could no longer be relied on as the only way to protect its interests, and that
rules could no longer protect against all the complex threats that Europeans face.
The politician said that there is an urgent need to assess whether the EU’s doctrine, institutions and decision-making process – which was based on a post-war world of stability and multilateralism – can keep up with the changes taking place around it. Von der Leyen added that it is necessary to assess whether the self-created system, which is made up of well-intentioned efforts to achieve consensus and compromise, is currently helping or hindering the bloc as a geopolitical player.
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