Check against delivery - Speech by Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe

Minister Attard, Ministers,
President Rousopoulos,
Madame la Maire, dear Jeanne Barseghian,
Representatives of the French government, Région Grand-Est, and Collectivité européenne d’Alsace,
Dear participants,

INTRODUCTION

Yesterday marked seventy-five years of the European Convention on Human Rights.

A reminder of what our parents and grandparents built.

Their world is almost gone.

The new order is still waiting to be imagined.

More and more voices are saying.

“Democracy is too slow.”

“Things are too complicated.”

“Maybe it’s time for someone to take control.”

But the real danger is not confusion — it is simplification.

We must resist these easy answers.

Our time demands something more difficult: an ‘éloge de la complexité.’

The courage to think in complexity.

The discipline to act with clarity.

And the wisdom to speak to everyone, not just those who agree.

i. A New Order to Imagine

We are living between worlds.

Previous generations built an order to keep peace.

Now we must build one to keep democracy.

By making democracy the centre of gravity for security, accountability, and solidarity.

ii. DEMOCRACY AS SECURITY

Let us start with security.

For many, it is synonymous with rearmament.

More than eight hundred billion euros in new defence spending are now planned.

As defence budgets are expected to soar, trust in democracy continues to fall.

We could soon have stronger armies — but weaker democracies.

Fast-forward five or ten years.

What happens if an extremist movement gains power in one of these heavily armed states?

What would they do with those weapons — and against whom?

More than a century separates the Chemin des Dames from the Battle of Bakhmut.

Yet the same trenches, the same suffering, the same danger for democracy.

At the same time, another war unfolds — silent, borderless, invisible.

A contest for how and what we think.

Disinformation is its weapon.

Its strategy: influence.

Its target: democracy itself.

Militarisation, disinformation, and AI test our institutions — and our capacity to act in time.

They force us to rethink what we mean by security.

The last century proved that when democracies disarm, they become targets.

This century warns that when they arm without accountability, those arms can be turned inward.

To crush dissent, subvert institutions, and place power above law.

That is why the Council of Europe is setting new guardrails:

A Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence.

And work on a new Convention on Disinformation and Foreign Interference.

Real security means institutions people trust, laws that apply equally, and the kind of stability that lets democracy grow.

That is democratic security — Europe’s first line of defence.

iii. DEMOCRACY AS ACCOUNTABILITY

That is where the question of accountability comes in.

To guard against the illusion that strength alone can replace legitimacy.

Ukraine reminds us why every day.

Each time it is attacked for choosing democracy, freedom, and the right to decide its own future.

Accountability in Ukraine takes many forms.

The Register of Damage and the future Claims Commission.

The work toward a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression.

And the European Court of Human Rights — the only international court hearing human rights cases linked to this war.

Together, they ensure that every loss is recorded, every claim addressed, and every crime judged.

But Ukraine’s reconstruction will demand more than rebuilding cities.

It will mean rebuilding trust.

Through justice, reform, and the rule of law.

All of this lies at the heart of our Action Plan for Ukraine.

Across Europe, corruption and political interference undermine trust just as surely as bombs destroy buildings.

Justice depends on  independence.

Integrity must be the backbone of our new democratic order.

iv. DEMOCRACY AS SOLIDARITY

Let us turn to solidarity.

It is the measure of how democracy protects the most vulnerable: women, children, minorities, migrants, and others.

For many of them, safety and equality remain out of reach.

At a time when some question the principles of the European Convention on Human Rights.

It reminds us that democracy’s strength lies not in avoiding complexity, but in confronting it.

That is precisely what we are doing by creating space for dialogue on migration, for example.

But solidarity must go further still.

It must extend to future generations.

In how we face climate change and the inequalities it leaves behind.

And it must speak to those who see inflation and the cost of living as the most urgent democratic priority in their daily lives.

As rearmament grows, the sacrifices it requires will deepen economic strain — and with it, the risk of feeding more distrust in democracy?

Solidarity is what holds us together. 

v. DEMOCRACY AS COOPERATION

Which brings me to my next point: cooperation.

Democracy is universal.

Our values do not end at borders.

The Council of Europe was never just about lines on a map.

If Europe is to matter, it must stand where its values are at stake — and do so without double standards.

Across the world, a new transactionalism is taking hold.

Where everything becomes a deal — even peace.

But democracy is not another transaction.

No one can hijack democracy.

As global multilateralism is struggling, multilateral regional organisations can help unlock solutions.

This is central to our new External Action Strategy.

To connect regions, share standards, and rebuild trust through law and rights.

At the United Nations General Assembly in September, the African Union, the Organization of American States, and the League of Arab States all expressed strong interest in deepening that dialogue.

And this is why this Forum is so important.

Because democracy’s future will not be written by one region or one generation.

VI. A NEW DEMOCRATIC PACT

This is the spirit of the New Democratic Pact for Europe.

A collective effort led by the Council of Europe to address disinformation, foreign interference, democratic backsliding, the climate crisis…

Everything that weakens our democracies.

At its centre, one question:

How must democracy evolve to meet the technological and geopolitical shifts of our time?

And one goal:

To renew the foundations of our democratic life.

And three pillars:

Education — to nurture democratic culture.

Protection — to reinforce democracy wherever it is in retreat.

And innovation — to adapt our institutions to fast-moving, cross-border, hybrid threats.

Across Europe, the conversation has begun.

And ideas are already emerging.

This Forum is part of that journey.

The window for action is closing fast.

CONCLUSION

Some say democracy is dying.

But what if it is only beginning?

In the long story of humankind, freedom is still new.

For centuries, power served the few — emperors, kings, and ideologies.

Only recently did people begin to govern themselves.

Each generation has had to learn what democracy means in its own time.

The task before us is:

To find strength — without losing restraint.

To face division — without feeding it.

And to defend ourselves — without becoming what we fear.

Our democratic future will be written in classrooms, in newsrooms, in courts.

In the daily choices of citizens who choose hope over cynicism.

And if democracy is to remain the centre of gravity of the order we are building, we must take the long view.

And make decisions that will still stand.

In one year.

In twenty.

And thirty years from now.

Thank you for your attention.