The world that the West has been building since the end of the Second World War is facing growing pressure of authoritarian policies and new alliances, Croatian member of the European Parliament, Tonino Picula has told Hina.

Recently, the European Parliament has adopted a report submitted by Picula, who is a member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (PES), on the relationship between the USA and the European Union, and the report calls for strengthening the cooperation between the EU and the USA against a backdrop of more and more global crises.

Picula, a member of the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs, and a substitute member of the EP delegation for relations with the United States, says that after the Cold War, the West is for the first time facing consolidated forces worldwide as well as inside the Western World which do not share the values of the Western civilisation.

Picula’s report was adopted with a tally of 485 votes for and 77 votes against.

This has been the second report prepared by Picula on this matter. His first report on this topic was adopted in late 2021.

“At that time, Joe Biden won the US presidential elections and the world started recovering from the coronavirus crisis, which was why we thought that our transatlantic cooperation would be better and better,” Picula told Hina.

“However those expectations proved to be unrealistic.”

Picula recalled that just a few months after the adoption of that first report, Russian President Vladimir Putin started implementing his plans through the invasion of Ukraine, said the Croatian MEP.

In Picula’s mind, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine seems to have consolidated the positions of different authoritarian policies and states that have opted to work on a sort of counterorder at the global level. He said that he referred to Moscow and Beijing and some other countries that regard the West as their enemy, such as Iran and North Korea.

The West is facing now a sort of consolidated forces that do not share Western political values, In addition, they have confronting economic interests, he said, recalling that currently, China is the main military and economic trading partner for nearly 130 countries worldwide.

On the other hand, the USA and the EU cannot catch up with such developments which is why it is necessary to review the current transatlantic relations.

MEP calls for protecting long-standing fundamental transatlantic alliance

During the debate on his report in the EP, Picula said that “the idea of this report was to summarise some expectations and recommendations on transatlantic relations as our position ahead of the elections next year on both sides of the Atlantic.”

“Our imperative is to send a clear message on how we see our cooperation, and what it should be in the months and years to come to protect this long-standing fundamental alliance and make it as resilient as possible to the various elections outcomes.

“Strong transatlantic cooperation is founded on the principle that a partnership of joint leadership and responsibility is necessary to weather the storm of multiple crises on both sides of the Atlantic. We must not refrain from repeating that the US is the EU’s most significant political and economic partner, and vice versa.

“Russian aggression on Ukraine changed many things. It’s the most direct attack on international law. It’s also the clearest example of reversing the multilateral system since the fall of the Berlin Wall,” Picula said in the debate.

Picula called for “additional revitalisation of transatlantic relations”.

“In light of multiple threats and crises confronting both sides of the Atlantic, we must continue strong transatlantic cooperation. Together, we must defend multilateralism and tackle the dangerous geopolitical realities that affect common values, interests, security and prosperity.”

Super-election year

Picula also notes that 2024 will be a super-election year, with the elections being held in the USA, the EU as well as in 70 countries worldwide. As many as 4.2 billion citizens will be eligible to go to the polls. Picula warned about fake news and disinformation in the run-up to the elections and also about authoritarian regimes taking advantage of the elections, where the outcome is already known, as a facade behind which undemocratic developments can go on.