European Parliament
Bakopoulos (GUE/NGL ).
(EL)
Mr President, the Greek Presidency has come along at a crucial time for our planet, and not just because we are on the brink of at least one armed conflict. It is a crucial time because the only superpower, the United States, is doing all it can to turn its tremendous power into a global hegemony and, naturally, this is provoking a reaction.
When we emerge from these vicissitudes, the entire world – and the European Union in particular – will be a different place, regardless of the outcome of the crisis. What is certain is that the post-war world order and its institutions will be the victims of the conflict and a different world will emerge from it. The European Union needs to have a view and an opinion about this new world. However, I get the impression that the prevailing mood in the institutions of the European Union is one of complacency, as if what is happening has nothing to do with us. I get the impression that many of us believe that we are living in a vacuum, in another world, immune from what is already happening and what is yet to come.
In times such as these, a European Union presidency has to be able to rework the values which we say we stand for into a vision of the world to come, and to persuade the people of Europe that these values are worth fighting for. Only with this priority will a presidency be successful and worthy of the times we live in.
Sittings come and go. So do programmes. However, the times we live in call for a return to the values of the people of Europe, as is only proper when we are fighting for peace.

