European Union, 2014

The world today is much more dangerous than

when we were together here last year. Fear is stronger

than hope, I’m afraid. Tragic events have marked

us. More than 200 schoolgirls were abducted and

enslaved. An airliner packed with parents, children,

scientists, tourists and crew members was cut down in

mid-flight. A mountain people were hunted, trapped

and slaughtered. And last week, at sea, 500 people were

shipwrecked, the victims of murderous smugglers.

Those dark episodes disturb us in that they seem

to herald deeper changes. Public opinion is beginning

to fear that the world is slipping through our fingers

and turning to evil. It is as if the political foundation

of our very existence together is being challenged, as

if the way individuals and States relate to one another

is threatened. Our citizens see the rise of obscurantism

and the forces of fanaticism; they see the boundaries of

a world of yesterday — of the day before yesterday, of

an insane world — reappearing. Yes, as my countryman

Paul-Henri Spaak said 66 years ago before this same

Assembly, we are afraid. Ours is not the fear of a coward,

but the fear that a man can and should have when he

looks to the future and considers all that it may hold of

horror and tragedy, and the terrible responsibilities in

that future (see A/PV.147, p. 280).

(spoke in English)

When the values we share are under pressure, when

the order of things seems to be unravelling, we must

act. We must bring back our girls and free them from

Boko Haram. We must allow the families of the victims

of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-17 to pay their last

respects to their loved ones, and keep alive the memory

of the hopeful people drowned in the Mediterranean.

All of us must also mobilize against the barbaric group

that is the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Together, we can make the world a safer place again.

When looking back upon the past year, the most

bewildering act in our region, for us in Europe, was

the abrupt and illegal annexation of Crimea in March.

That violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial

integrity triggered the gravest threat to the European

security order in decades. It matters beyond the

European continent. It is about rejecting the use of

force and about defending the rule of law that upholds

our society of nations. The General Assembly assumed

its responsibility by adopting resolution 68/262 on the

territorial integrity of Ukraine. Members defended

those very values that the Charter of the United Nations

was built upon. The European Union welcomes the

strong message that the breaking of rules will not be

tolerated. When you tamper with borders, you tamper

with peace.

The European Union stands firm in its solidarity

with Ukraine. It is the Ukrainian people’s right to

decide their own political destiny. Europe responded

to aggression and the violation of international law

with a wide range of political, economic and financial

sanctions. We knew that that could hurt our own

economies in return, but together with our international

partners, we did not relent, since the stability of the

European house itself was at stake. Now all of us

must ensure that the peace process launched in Minsk

advances, and that all parties respect the ceasefire

and abide by the peace plan. The sanctions are not a

goal in themselves, and they can be revised, provided

that there is tangible progress. We can rebuild trust if

commitments are met.

At the same time, it is essential that Ukraine’s

authorities move firmly forward on the path of

reforms. Those reforms — economic, political and

constitutional — will determine the success of a lasting

political solution. The country’s political life and

prosperity shall belong to all its citizens. An inclusive

Ukraine with a new social contract and a fair balance

between the parts and the whole is the best way to

secure the country’s future.

European Union countries and institutions are

fully committed to supporting Ukraine as it follows

that path. The European Union Association Agreement

with the Ukraine, which was ratified just last week

by the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada and the European

Parliament, is a compass and an opportunity to help

Ukraine transform into the dynamic, modern and open

democracy its people deserve. The steps ahead in this

cooperation will take place within the wider picture of

the peace process. With Russia, our biggest neighbour,

we are ready to engage and re-establish a basis of trust

and of promises kept.

There are nearly 200 countries in this world, but

many thousands of minorities. Clearly, there is no other

way than ensuring inclusiveness, respecting identities

and giving people a voice. As a Belgian and a European,

I know it can be a real effort to stay together. It requires

constant attention, openness, empathy and willingness

to adjust. Countries do not have to break up to allow

for multiple, often multi-layered, identities to coexist.

Unity in diversity can work.

The most pressing concern on all our minds today

is Iraq, Syria and the wider Middle East. I need not

sketch the bleak outlook, sinister deeds or unspeakable

suffering in the region. What we have seen this past

summer has nothing to do with Islam. It is the return

of barbaric ghosts from a long-forgotten past and

horrendous deeds rejecting that we are one humankind

and denying the very basic values of civilization.

As the Grand Mufti of Egypt said to me two weeks

ago, ISIL is abusing the name of Islam and the very

values of Islam and of every religion. I welcome the

statements made and measures taken by the League of

Arab States, the Organization for Islamic Cooperation

and Muslim nations against ISIL. It is essential that

the parties and neighbours most concerned be at the

frontlines of this common fight, but all of us must do

our share to confront and isolate ISIL, block financial

flows and weapon flows, cut off illegal oil revenue and

stop the influx of foreign fighters. European Union

Governments are working hard on all those fronts.

As we know from our own national experience,

radicalization can strike anywhere: take the young

jihadi fanatic from France who turned torturer in Syria

and, back in Europe, murdered four innocent victims

in the Jewish Museum of Belgium, in my hometown of

Brussels. We need urgent collective action to stop those

foreign fighters from joining ISIL’s ranks, as so many

of us underlined in yesterday’s high-level Security

Council meeting (see S/PV.7272). We also must work

together to help the affected countries. Iraq’s new

Government, which is aiming for inclusive leadership,

deserves everybody’s full support and certainly has

ours.

However, the crisis cannot be resolved without a

political solution for Syria. We owe it to the almost

200,000 victims and the millions who have had to

flee their homes. It is quite simply a catastrophe and

one of the international community’s biggest failures.

What is needed is a comprehensive regional solution.

It must include, as this summer’s tragic events in

Gaza underlined once more, a two-State solution with

an independent, democratic, viable Palestinian State

living side by side and in peace with Israel and its other

neighbours.

The violent dynamics are spreading instability in

all directions — into the Sahel region and as far south

as Nigeria, but also to the east. Those dynamics are

fostering terrorism, organized crime, arms flows, drugs

trafficking, human smuggling and radicalization, as we

also see in Libya. I want to pay tribute to France for its

efforts to help, upon their requests, the Governments

of Mali and the Central African Republic to restore the

rule of law and instil inclusiveness and reconciliation

in close collaboration with the African Union, the

United Nations and the whole of the European Union.

We are ready to undertake our responsibility, knowing

that we Europeans have no self-interested geostrategic

objectives in the area. We turned that page of history

decades ago.

A collective approach is important to deal with

another tragic symptom of an imploding Middle

East: dramatic migration in the Mediterranean. We

have seen millions of people fleeing the war in Syria

into countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

European lifeguards rescue up to 1,000 people a

week — people who risk their lives on small boats

across the Mediterranean, looking for a life free from

fear. Many come from countries where the State

structures have crumbled, where violence is endemic

and where people’s most basic needs cannot be met.

(spoke in French)

The only lasting answer to despair is development.

I wish to pay tribute to the tireless commitment of

the United Nations and of the Secretary-General to

promoting the development goals, including the post-

2015 development agenda, and to maintaining a level

of ambition for our actions that is commensurate with

the challenges. I also acknowledge their efforts with

regard to climate challenge, where Europe remains

committed at the forefront and will demonstrate that

commitment at the Paris negotiations next year. I hope

that all nations — large and small, rich and poor — will

assume their responsibility.

The Ebola crisis cruelly reminds us that just as the

future of a country depends on its health facilities, the

health of all may ultimately depend on such structures.

Ebola is the modern plague. The teams of doctors,

nurses and volunteers must be strengthened. Europe

stands ready, with others, to help, to relieve and to heal.

This autumn, we commemorate the centenary of a

great conflict that was the first to lead the entire world

into its destructive spiral. It took the Second World War

for our nations to pull themselves together and to try

and build peace together, making the birth of our union

of nations possible. Although, since then, we have

managed to prevent another world war, we have still

not put an end to violence between or within States.

We meet today not to lament the unforgivable but to

nurture hope and to achieve what we must do, that is,

to act together.

(spoke in English)

We must overcome fear. We must overcome fear

by fighting danger, by restoring justice and by striving

for peace so that next year, when our society of nations

meets again in New York, we can say, “The spell of that

dreadful summer of 2014 has been broken. Step by step,

we are making progress. Patiently but relentlessly, we

are restoring a place for hope.”