special feature
In Conversation
with Stavros Lambrinidis of the European Union
S
tavros Lambrinidis has been the European Union’s special representative for human rights since 2012 to earlier this year when he became the EU’s chief of mission in Washington. In 2011, he was Greece’s minister of foreign affairs, tasked with reassuring the world that Greece was emerging from its financial crisis and was not a lost cause. Recently, he spoke at Amherst College, his alma mater, where he delivered a strong defense of the European Union and its institutions. The ambassador’s narrative of a thriving union included frequent challenges, without specifics, to the Trump administration’s approach to the transatlantic relationship. Some of his main points: On the historic EU-U.S. relationship: “The fundamental point that we have always taken as a self-evident truth, and that is being challenged sometimes today, is that a strong European Union is the best ally the United States could ever possibly have for its economy and its security, and that a strong United States is the strongest possible, and most beneficial ally Europe can have, for economy and security. We have more in common with each other than either of us has with anyone else in the world, and maybe it’s about time we remember this, and remember why.”
On how the EU is wrongly perceived in Washington: “The country that makes more profits out of investment in Europe, more than it does everywhere else in the world combined, is the U.S. The U.S. in Europe, and because of Europe, is creating millions of jobs for people in America and for people in Europe. And guess what, the biggest by far foreign investment in the U.S., multiple times more than China and any other country is the European Union and European companies, creating millions of jobs in this country. ...And yet, for some reason, the
40
European Union is this big, terrible regulator. We’re the biggest de-regulator in the world. We eliminated the regulations of 28 countries to create one. I always find it amusing that everyone working for the U.S. government is a civil servant, but everyone working for the European Union is a bureaucrat.” On the EU’s commitment to free trade: “We have negotiated deals with 71 countries in the world, and we are becoming supremely strong in the world in economic development and in opening up other people’s markets and supporting each other in building a strong economic picture. I contrast that with what I see in the U.S. these days—a tendency to look at the world as an enemy in trade. We have found it tremendously beneficial to look at the rest of the world as a partner.” On the dangers of a trade war: “There is rhetoric that we are unfair, that we are a ‘national security risk’ to the United States when it comes to aluminum, when it comes to importing cars. We are in a potential trade dispute, and an unpleasant one that could harm that huge economy: we together, make up 50 percent of the world’s G.D.P. We together make each other remarkably richer, but could end up in a tariff war that make us both very quickly much poorer. We’re trying to avoid that by having very serious negotiations, and I hope we can avoid the negative and focus on the positive. This is part of my job here—and good luck to me.” On Climate Change: “Climate change is a real and present danger for us and for our planet, but it’s also a remarkable creator of technology and jobs and anyone who’s not in that train is going to be in a pretty bad state in a few years’ time.” On criticism of the European Union
as un-democratic: “Look at the European elections. We have the biggest parliament in the world, directly elected by 550 million people; we have a government, called the European Commission—28 commissioners [appointed] by elected governments in the member states in the exact same way that your secretary of state and other Cabinet secretaries are unelected officials appointed by an elected president. There should be no difference [in perception of the two systems] yet somehow, for some reason, the EU [setup] is seen as a different thing. It’s not. We are a huge, strong, vibrant democracy as you are, and we are open in our market in a way that makes a huge difference in our people’s lives.” On Trump’s insistence that N.A.T.O. countries spend a minimum of 2 percent of G.D.P. on defense: “The commitment is there, but I’m concerned when discussions on defense are simply on who sells and who buys arms. Over the past five years, we in Europe have exploded our defense expenses by about $100 billion throughout the European Union. The EU is already the second biggest spender on defense, way outpacing Russia, China …” On human rights: “To those who say human rights is a luxury in today’s world I reply: Can you please tell me what’s so scary about smart girls? Why did ISIS in Iraq abduct and kill, rape many hundreds of Yazidi girls? The answer is pretty obvious. Smart girls tend to become educated girls and then empowered women, and empowered women change entirely the balance of power in any society, and the last thing terrorists want is empowered societies. They want a society with big, black holes of power that they can fill. So if you want to fight terrorists educate girls. And boys. Yes, have the guns, but if you want to be serious about this business don’t just believe that the biggest gun wins.”
WA S H I N G T O N L I F E
| o c to b e r
2019
| washingtonlife.com