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

Ambassador Cujbă,
Commissioner O’Flaherty,
Excellencies,
Dear participants,
 

There is a photograph of Václav Havel outside my office.

It was taken thirty years ago, here in Strasbourg.

It is not the Havel of the shopkeeper story that Prime Minister Carney used in his wake-up call speech a few days ago in Davos.

Not the rupture in the world order we are living through.

But a moment of possibility for our continent.

***

Europe was opening.

Democracy felt possible in places emerging from the shadow of the Iron Curtain.

And yet, even then, another war was raging in Europe.

Not a war of aggression.

But a war fed by contagious nationalism.

***

In that picture, Václav Havel placed Europe at a crossroads.

We would either find a new responsibility.

Or we would pay the price again.

For him, Europe had a unique chance to build its political order on democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

But also on civil society.

***

Once again, Europe is at a turning point.

We will not be able to respond to disruption outside Europe if civic space is shrinking within it.

If democratic trust is collapsing from the inside.

***

The findings of my last annual report are not reassuring.

Elections are becoming easier to influence and harder to trust.

Disinformation, foreign interference and AI-driven manipulation now shape debates long before people vote.

Free voices are also under pressure.

Journalists face threats and harassment, even in long-standing democracies.

Peaceful protesters face excessive force.

Lawsuits aimed at silencing activists persist.

And civic space is shrinking under new so-called “foreign influence” or “foreign agent” laws.

They place growing burdens on independent organisations, simply for receiving support from abroad.

Courts, too, are being pulled into politics, including the European Court of Human Rights.

***

External indicators confirm what we see.

Only 12 out of 46 Council of Europe member States still have what CIVICUS considers “open” civic space.

***

Just over a year ago, we set in motion the New Democratic Pact for Europe.

A collective effort to respond to the pressures that are weakening our democracies.

The consultation phase is already underway.

Civil society has a central role to play.

In Reykjavik in 2023, Europe’s leaders were clear:

“Civil society is a prerequisite for a functioning democracy.”

They made it one of the ten Principles for Democracy.

The next phase of the Pact will turn these insights into concrete policies and new democratic practices.

And this is why today’s conference is important.

***

In the meantime, progress is already taking shape on the challenges that will define Europe’s democratic future.

First, foreign information manipulation and interference.

Information itself has become a security issue for democracy.

This is now driving new work on a Council of Europe Convention on disinformation and foreign interference.

Not to police speech.

But to protect democratic agency.

And second, on migration.

Europe is told it is either control without law or principles without control.

That is a false choice.

When migration, protest, and dissent are treated as security threats, civic space narrows quickly.

On the road to the Ministerial in Chișinău in May, Ministers are working within the framework of the European Convention on Human Rights to ensure that security and legality move together.

***

This is what the Pact is meant to do.

To create space for dialogue, even across disagreement, and to build common ground.

So that we can turn democratic anxiety into democratic capacity.

And turn shared diagnosis into action.

***

Each generation must renew democracy in its own time.

And our time is moving quickly.

The era of pretending is over.

When we cut the links of democratic dialogue, we take the oxygen out of democracy.

Civic space is where democracy breathes.

***

The Pact needs civil society.

It needs those who create trust, defend rights, and keep democratic life real beyond elections.

That is the role you play, here in this room and across Europe.

***

Thirty years ago, in this building, Václav Havel told Europe it faced a choice.

Responsibility or repetition.

Our responsibility is clear.

To keep civic space open.

To protect those who sustain democratic life.

And to ensure that in a fragmenting world order Europe does not surrender what makes democracy work.

This is what democratic renewal requires.

The Pact must make it possible.

Thank you.

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