Michael O’Flaherty has hit back at the Trump administration for dismissing Europe. Last week US Vice President JD Vance claimed that Europe was in retreat from fundamental values.
“What I worry about is the threat from within,” Europe, Vance said.
The Human Rights Commissioner for the Council of Europe, Michael O’Flaherty, says that was wrong.
Vance “challenged Europe and said we had lost sight of our values. I would repudiate that very, very strongly”, O’Flaherty told the European Parliament.
“We’re all struggling to understand our present time because it’s happening so fast”, he said
But “to the contrary” to the way Europe is now being portrayed by Donald Trump’s administration, Michael O’Flaherty says “we have held true to values.”
“We have held true to the values of human rights, of the European Convention on Human Rights, of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and, and and as a result, we produce outcomes for our societies that are better, that are safer, that are more trustworthy, and in the long run will be the more successful.”
The comments by Michael O’Flaherty come as Europe and the US struggle to find a new balance with the new administration in Washington.
To put it mildly, the EU and US do not see eye to eye on Ukraine, the Middle East, trade tariffs nor on the perception of fundemental values and rights.
JD Vance was particularly critical of what he sees as Europe’s restrictions on freedom of speech and its attitude towards migration.
But Human Rights Commissioner, Michael O’Flaherty, has urged Europe stand firm for what we believe in.
“We have to stay absolutely rigorously focused on that [the values of human rights]”, he said.
Unlike the European Union, the role of the Council of Europe is solely “to stand up for these values: Human rights, democracy and rule of law. And with no distractions.”
“It doesn’t do trade, it doesn’t do anything in the economic context”
And he appealed to European politicians to stay the course.
“I’m worried about the extent in recent months, frankly, even within literally the last year, the extent to which, middle ground leaders of our continent have indicated a willingness to cede a principle, to cede on international law.”
Stand firm, he urged.