Europe can no longer be the “guarantor of the old world order” and needs a “more realistic and interest-oriented foreign policy”, declared on Monday the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Addressing the ambassadors of the European Union, von der Leyen said that the community bloc will “always defend and uphold the rule-based system”, but can no longer rely on it to protect European interests and shield the continent from threats, according to The Guardian.
She added: “We urgently need to reflect whether our doctrine, our institutions, and our decision-making process – all designed in a post-war world marked by stability and multilateralism – have kept up with the pace of changes around us. Whether the system we built – with all its well-intentioned attempts to reach consensus and compromise – helps us or, on the contrary, affects our credibility as a geopolitical actor.”
Von der Leyen, former Minister of Defense in Germany, who promised to lead a “geopolitical Commission” when she took office in 2019, has been criticized in recent days for the way she handled the war with Iran.
An influential MEP and former French minister, Nathalie Loiseau, reproached von der Leyen last week for her telephone diplomacy with Gulf leaders following the attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran, accusing the Commission’s president of undermining the role of the head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas.
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