"Here Europe" receives Pascal Lamy, former European Commissioner but also director of the WTO for 8 years, who now chairs the Paris Peace Forum, an international event dealing with questions of global governance and multilateralism, which takes place. is held in virtual this year from November 11 to 13.

With the election of Joe Biden in the United States, it is for him "very good news for the world and the Europeans" to find the Americans in the international game, and to be able to solve the problems "by talking to each other, by negotiating , by cooperating, rather than by exchanging blows and often insults ".

He warns, however, that this will not change "the rivalry between the United States and China" and that it "will have consequences for the United States / China / Europe triangle".

It will be necessary "to cooperate more with the Americans to bring the Chinese to respect a certain number of rules of the game of international cooperation, and in particular in trade matters".

In this context, Pascal Lamy is satisfied with the emancipation of the European Union vis-à-vis the United States, believing that "it is a good thing to continue", because the experience with Donald Trump shows that "the American outlook on Europe is not what it used to be", and this will be the case "even with Joe Biden".

He regrets Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from major international institutions such as the WTO and WHO as well as the Paris Agreement and insists on the importance of working with Joe Biden, because he is "much more favorable to the ecological transition that Trump who, basically, denied the need ", but recalls that" American policy, the American economy, the American energy system will take a long time before moving towards carbon neutrality "which is" the European objective for 2050 ".

"Better organize" against terrorism

According to Pascal Lamy, "if Europe is hit more than the others" by terrorist attacks, it is because it has "a mode of relationship between the State and religion which is called secularism", a principle on which we must not go back "but which" inevitably puts Europe in difficulty in the face of extremists who consider that religion must rule all people's lives ".

However, the fight against terrorism is a "matter of an intelligence and police network within the European area as well as a matter of cooperation": we must "organize better" and "keep our borders properly. external ", even if it means" putting back internal borders from time to time, as is done with the Covid crisis ".

Asked about the role of social networks in our society, he considers that it is "very important", but warns that as a media, it would be necessary "to get out of the law of the market, because" the rules of the game of market capitalism cannot apply to all platforms, which are industries that treat information as a commodity.

"Multilateralism was badly before the Covid, and it is even worse with the Covid", he regrets, affirming that in thirty years in his service, he had "never seen such a mediocre level of international cooperation , as low as these days ".

It supports a diversification "of the actors of international life to revive multilateralism, to adjust this international system which is struggling as we unfortunately see now" and therefore wishes "to involve NGOs, companies, large academic institutions, cities ", as in the context of the Paris Peace Forum.

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