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Speech by Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe

 

Minister Floridis,
Deputy Minister Papadopoulou,
Vice-Rector Papaioannou,
Dean Christodoulou,

Former President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, dear Theodoros Rousopoulos,
Excellencies,
Faculty and students,
 

It is humbling to speak about democracy here in Athens, just a few minutes’ walk from the Ancient Agora.

And it is humbling to think about democracy’s future at a time of daunting challenges, both from within and beyond our continent.

I. A GREEK TRAGEDY MOMENT

Greece gave us democracy two and a half thousand years ago.

But Greece also gave us tragedy.

Tragedy is when everyone sees what is coming.

And nothing can stop it.

II. RUPTURE IN THE WORLD ORDER

In Ukraine, Russia insists on acquiring land by force.

Land it has not conquered.

After four years of a brutal, illegal war of aggression, peace is still elusive.

In Greenland, President Trump said he would make this semiautonomous territory of Denmark part of the United States “the easy way” or “the hard way.”

This was once unthinkable.

The headlines moved on, but the threat has not.

Gaza, Venezuela, and now Iran reflect wider disregard for international law.

That is why I have said that international law is either universal or meaningless.

That is the rupture in the world order.

III. THE PERFECT STORM

But none of this happened overnight.

We told ourselves that the financial crisis, the pandemic, the climate crisis, and the return of populism were setbacks.

In fact, they were deep cracks in the architecture.

You remember like me: We thought democracy would simply expand, generation after generation.

That peace in Europe would simply endure.

But a more aggressive Russia and a less engaged America leave us no choice.

Because a continent that abandons legal consistency in exchange for short-term protection does not become more autonomous. No.

It becomes more dependent.

Dependent on security guarantees it does not control, and dependent on decisions taken elsewhere.

We were not prepared for disinformation to reshape democratic debate.

Nor for governments to challenge the authority of the European Court of Human Rights.

But now, it is our responsibility to decide how to react.

There is no way back to the old world.

Only a way forward.

And we can decide how it will look like.

IV. EUROPE’S CHOICE

In Greek tragedy, audiences often know how the story ends.

Limits are crossed.

Warnings are ignored.

And the fall begins to look inevitable.

Europe is being told a similar story today.

That power will decide.

That rules will fade.

That middle powers and smaller states must adjust.

It is a world where big powers divide the map into so-called “spheres of influence.”

A world where institutions stall while coalitions replace common rules.

Where security shifts from law to leverage.

A world where trade, migration, and defence become transactional bargains.

We do not accept that ending.

This cannot be a tragedy.

V. DEMOCRATIC SECURITY

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

There is another way.

We at the Council of Europe call it “democratic security.”

What Europe needs now is a security architecture that protects institutions, that protects rights and that protects freedoms.

One that moves beyond the divide between so-called “hard” and “soft” security.

This divide is outdated.

Borders. Energy. Cyber. Defence. Even elections.

Today, everything is spoken in the language of security.

And the danger is that security becomes the excuse to set law aside.

But law remains the last common language capable of restraining power in a fragmenting world.

What does it mean, exactly?

It means that democracy, human rights, and the rule of law are no longer peripheral to security.

They are its centre of gravity.

Law is Europe’s form of power.

In Greek mythology, Penelope [puh-NEL-uh-pee] wove by day what was undone by night.

Defending international law can feel the same.

What takes decades to build can be undone in moments.

Democratic security does not replace other forms of security, including military security.

Democratic security is what makes all forms of security legitimate, sustainable, and accountable.

As Europe is rearming on a scale not seen since the Cold War, military power only protects a democracy if democracy remains strong enough to control it.

Otherwise, the risk is that extremist parties could gain control of strong armies with no one to stop them.  

For Greece, at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, this is not theoretical.

It is felt in war to the east, migration pressures to the south, and responsibilities within NATO.

VI. DEMOCRATIC RECONSTRUCTION

When we talk about war, we need to talk about Ukraine.

Ukraine is the frontline of democratic security.

Greece has demonstrated that commitment, supporting Ukraine’s armed forces and securing winter gas supplies.

We cannot allow Ukraine to be pushed into the background as crises compete for attention.

That would be a serious mistake.

This is where the work of the Council of Europe on accountability comes into play.

The Register of Damage for Ukraine is now operational.

Already, more than 100,000 claims have been lodged.

In December, states signed the Convention establishing the next step of International Claims Commission.

And we have launched an advance team for a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression.

This is new legal infrastructure, built in the middle of war.

And when the fighting stops, the Council of Europe will still be there with the Action Plan and an important office in Kyiv.

For democratic reconstruction and for justice.

Because without accountability, there can be no just and lasting peace.

VII. DOUBLE STANDARDS

I also mentioned migration.

Migration is shaping Europe’s politics once again.

Across our continent, hostility toward migrants and minorities is growing.

We are told there are only two options.

To set international law aside in the name of control.

Or to defend principles while ignoring legitimate pressures.

That is a false choice.

The danger is creating a climate where law becomes contingent, standards negotiable, and exceptions multiply.

This is how double standards take hold.

Security and rights are not opposites.

Democratic security means holding both.

That is why Ministers are working within the European Convention on Human Rights to ensure that security and rights move together.

A political declaration is being prepared for adoption in Chișinău this May.

VIII. false narratives

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

Trust, too, has become a security issue.

Foreign interference and AI-driven manipulation now shape political debate long before people vote.

Elections are becoming easier to influence, and harder to trust.

Journalists face threats.

Civic space is narrowed by new “foreign influence” laws.

Courts are placed under political pressure, including the European Court of Human Rights. 

That is why the Council of Europe is working on a new Convention on disinformation and foreign interference.

Not to police speech.

But to protect democratic agency.

Because today, the challenge is not getting information.

It is knowing what to trust.

IX. WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

The rupture we are living through is not only geopolitical.

It is democratic.

To understand its scale, imagine the history of human government compressed into a single day.

Only late in the evening did people begin to claim power for themselves.

For most of that day, power belonged to pharaohs and empires, kings and dynasties, tyrants and dictatures.

But democracy began here in Greece.

In Athens, citizens gathered to deliberate, vote, and hold leaders accountable.

This was radically new.

CLOSING

Each rupture carried danger.

But also the possibility of beginning again.

That is the moment Europe faces now.

Democratic security is our continent’s answer.

A way of binding power to law.

A way of making rights the foundation of security, not its casualty.

This is Europe’s work.

And the time is now.
 

Thank you.