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

Rector Viik,
Members of the faculty,
Colleagues,
And above all, dear students,

Tere päevast.

It is a pleasure to join you here at Tallinn University.

***

Two days ago, I was having the same conversation at Vilnius University.

It struck me that none of the students in the room were born when the Baltic Way took place.

I can remember it well. I was seventeen then.

Two million people forming a human chain from Tallinn to Riga to Vilnius.

More than 600 kilometres long.

That was just a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It was a powerful moment because it made Europe’s choice visible.

A demand for freedom and democracy.

A future they refused to leave to others.

***

Today, Europe’s choices are harder to see clearly.

The crises come from every direction.

War. Disinformation. Democratic backsliding. Pressure on longtime alliances.

And the speed keeps accelerating.

We barely have time to absorb one crisis before the next one arrives.

So I want to slow down today and share three examples from my own recent experience, some from just the past few days.

They do not explain everything.

But they reveal the choices Europe now has to make.

***

The first example is from Kyiv.

I was there at the end of February, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its fifth year.

I visited the power plant that supplies more than half of the city’s electricity.

It is constantly under attack.

In the command centre, there is a small steel capsule.

When the air raid alarm sounds, someone goes inside and keeps the plant running.

Later at the Council of Europe office, I saw sleeping bags.

Our staff kept them there so they could stay at work when it was too cold or too dangerous to go home.

That is resilience in its most concrete form.

***

Other crises, including the war in Iran, are pulling attention elsewhere.

But the attacks on Ukraine continue.

That is why our work there remains a priority.

That includes accountability.

It is one of the issues I am taking up here in Tallinn.

Estonia is a strong supporter of accountability for Ukraine, from the International Claims Commission to the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression.

Political momentum is building behind the Special Tribunal.

This Friday, at our Ministerial Session in Chișinău, we will carry that work forward.

***

My second example comes from a series of back-to-back visits over these past weeks to the UK, Ireland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Macedonia.  

Four different histories.

But one common legal space.

A shared legal order across 46 countries, with the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights at its core.

The Convention has helped sustain peace in Northern Ireland through the Good Friday Agreement.

It has also been central to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constitutional order since Dayton.

And in North Macedonia, the Council of Europe has supported the implementation of the Ohrid Framework Agreement, strengthening minority rights, inter-ethnic cohesion and democratic resilience.

***

This common legal space is unique in the world.

But we cannot take it for granted.

The Convention is being called into question.

The judgments of the Court have come under growing political pressure.

This legal space also depends on strong democracies.

Yet across our continent, democracy is backsliding while Europe is rearming.

Last year, the Estonian government approved a plan to boost defence spending to more than 5% of GDP.

Europe’s rearmament is necessary.

But it should make us pause.

If democratic control does not keep power in check, today’s military build-up can become tomorrow’s security risk.

***

My last example takes us to Yerevan last week, for the summit of the European Political Community.

It was the first time Armenia hosted the summit.

A major moment for the South Caucasus. 

It was also the first time that Canada, a non-European country, attended.

Prime Minister Carney’s presence said a lot about the new geopolitics of our world.

It was a reminder that alliances must rest on the strength of our values, not just the value of our strength.

***

This EPC summit was also held in the lead-up to Armenia’s parliamentary elections.

These elections, like others before them, have been targeted by hybrid attacks.

Disinformation is a growing threat to our democracies.

Estonians know this too.

Last month, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania rejected Russian claims that Baltic territory and airspace were being used for drone attacks against Russia.

That is why the Council of Europe is developing a Framework Convention on foreign information manipulation and interference.

At our Ministerial this week, member states will have the opportunity to give that work clear political direction.

***

All these examples point to the same conclusion.

Lasting security begins with institutions people can trust and democracies that can withstand pressure.

At the Council of Europe, we call this “democratic security.”

Democratic security protects people and democracy by keeping power subject to democratic accountability, human rights, and the rule of law.

This concept goes beyond the old divide between “hard” and “soft” security.

It means independent courts, transparent elections, and free media.

But it also means the capacity to confront threats such as cyberattacks, terrorism, and foreign information manipulation and interference.

***

Democratic security is central to the New Democratic Pact for Europe that we launched a year and a half ago.

Its ambition is to rebuild trust in institutions and strengthen democratic resilience.

And to do so in an age of permanent crisis and technological change.

We are in the middle of the consultation phase, which will run until the end of the year.

It involves a wide range of stakeholders, including academia.

And it will help turn the Pact into concrete action.

***

I like engaging students with the Pact.

Not too long ago, one of them said to me:

“What Europe needs right now is not a democratic pact, it’s a security pact.”

I understand the urge.

But it is misleading.

Europe does not have to choose between security and democracy.

It never did. And it cannot afford to start now.

***

The people who joined hands during the Baltic Way understood this.

People from your own families.

They faced a choice.

And they chose democracy.

***

That is the lesson Europe needs now.

In times of rupture, Europe must answer with democratic security.

With law. With institutions. With societies strong enough to defend their own future.

In 1989, the peoples of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania took their future into their own hands.

In 2026, Europe must do the same.

Thank you.