Europe: Pat Cox calls for more European spending on security: “We have entered a new era of uncertainty”

BARCELONA, 21 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The former president of the European Parliament Pat Cox has opted for European states to increase spending on security and collective defense, two issues that he assures will focus the debate in the immediate future, and has warned: “We have entered a new era of uncertainty ».

This is what this Jew said at the 25th anniversary event of the Office of the European Parliament in Barcelona, ​​which was attended by the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès; the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Generalitat, Meritxell Serret; the head of the EP Office in Barcelona, ​​Sergi Barrera; the head of the representation of the European Commission, Manuel Szapiro, and the former president of the Generalitat Jordi Pujol.

Cox has argued that the world “shares both profound interdependence and profound vulnerability,” and has warned that the world order as it has been known in the West until now is threatened from within and without.

«This is not a pretty picture, but it is the challenging context with which to evaluate the Europe to come. It is difficult to know if we are facing the new normal or the abnormal,” stressed the former president of the European Parliament and also president of the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe.

«MULTILATERALISM IN DISPUTE»

He has pointed out that the world is going through an “era of multipolarity but with a multilateralism in dispute, since the multipolar world is becoming a multiple world”, after which he has pointed out that the BRICS countries are key, although they are not a homogeneous block, has detailed.

He has also maintained that the United States is “incredibly polarized, frequently blocked and sometimes dysfunctional”, but has highlighted that the shared problem between the EU and the US is competition with China.

ELECTIONS IN THE USA

“This year’s presidential election (in the US) is likely to be the most consequential of our lifetimes, not just for the US but for the West itself, its values, norms, aspirations and choices,” has held.

He has stated that the rhetoric on China of the American president, Joe Biden, “has been softer” than that of his predecessor, Donald Trump, but he considers that his political stance has been tougher, after which he recalled that his Executive prohibited the Chinese access to high-end semiconductors that could be used to improve computer, AI, and quantum computing functions.

Asked if Catalan should be an official language in the European institutions, Cox recalled what he did in a fragment of his inauguration speech as president of the European Parliament in Gaelic, when this language was not yet official in the EU.

He stated that he did not know what level of response there is to Catalan at the European level or at the Spanish level, after which he added that Europe is multicultural, but that decisions on these issues “should be made by those who are authorized to do so.”

ARAGONE

In his speech, Aragonès defended Catalan becoming an official language in the European institutions and a working language in the European Parliament: “It is a matter of linguistic equality, it is not a favored treatment”, and he assured that since his Executive will continue working to make it a reality. He expressed the Government’s commitment to strengthening the European project, and pointed out that after the European elections on June 9, “a Europe that is much stronger” will be needed, in which there are no skeptics but hopefuls, he said verbatim.

The Catalan president has congratulated the European Parliament Office in Barcelona on its 25th anniversary, and has highlighted that there is one in the Catalan capital, a fact that “is not very common in cities that are not state capitals”, which he considers as an recognition of the uniqueness of Catalonia and its commitment to European construction.

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