Volodymyr Zelenskiy with Ursula von der Leyen and Ukraine's prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, at the summit in Kyiv. Photo: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service Handout/EPA.
By Ben Norton – Jul 19, 2024
European Union foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell admitted the West has hypocritical “double standards” on international law, the Russia-Ukraine-NATO war, Israel’s bombing of Gaza, the US-led invasion of Iraq, and climate change.
The European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell, has acknowledged that the West has hypocritical “double standards”.
Borrell argued that “diplomacy is the art of managing double standards”.
As examples of Western hypocrisy, the top EU diplomat cited international law, the Russia-Ukraine-NATO war, Israel’s bombing of Gaza, the US-led invasion of Iraq, and climate change.
“Wherever I go, I find myself confronted with the accusation of double standards”, Borrell recalled. “I used to say to my ambassadors that diplomacy is the art of managing double standards. Certainly, something difficult, but it is about [that]: to manage double standards”.
The EU foreign-policy chief made these remarks in a talk at Oxford University in May. The EU’s diplomatic service published a transcript of his speech. (Some of the exact wording is slightly different in the transcript, as the website edited Borrell’s comments to correct grammatical errors.)
EU “double standards” on international law, Israel-Palestine, Ukraine, Iraq
International humanitarian law “should be the best safeguard against the normalisation of the use of force that we see all over the world”, Borrell argued.
He acknowledged that Europe has been hypocritical on this: “I know, however, that to be able to rally the world around those principles, we need to show that we, Europeans, respect them always and everywhere. Is that what we are doing? Well, not to the extent we should. And for Europe, this is a problem”.
“The world have not forgotten the war in Iraq”, Borrell continued, noting that some European countries joined in the US-led invasion, which UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said clearly violated international law.
The EU has also been deeply critical on Israel-Palestine, the foreign-policy chief conceded.
“What is now happening in Gaza has portrayed Europe in a way that many people simply do not understand”, Borrell said. “They saw our quick engagement and decisiveness in supporting Ukraine and wonder about the way we approach what is happening in Palestine”.
When foreign countries look at Europe, he acknowledged, “The perception is that the value of civilian lives in Ukraine is not the same than in Gaza, where more than 34,000 are dead, most others displaced, [where] children are starving, and the humanitarian support [is] obstructed”.
“And the perception is that we care less if United Nations Security Council resolutions are violated, as it is the case by Israel with respect to the settlements, [as opposed to] when it is violated by Russia”, Borrell added.
“If we call something a ‘war crime’ in one place, we need to call it by the same name when it happens anywhere else”, implored the top EU diplomat. “One horror cannot justify another”.
Western hypocrisy on climate change
Borrell likewise addressed Western hypocrisy on climate change, given that rich capitalist countries in the Global North are responsible for the majority of historical carbon emissions, but are now putting the burden of the green energy transition onto the Global South, which contributed the least, but already suffers from the worst consequences of global warming.
“We have to have a look at why the world is feeling some resentment about us”, stated the EU foreign-policy chief.
“Yes, there is a feeling of resentment because people believe that there are different responsibilities”, he added.
“We, Europeans, have produced about 25% of all cumulated global CO2 emissions since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution”, Borrell said.
He noted that Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America have each only contributed 3% of historical carbon emissions.
“Sub-Saharan Africa and South Americans [have] almost nothing of the responsibility, and they share the most important and damaging consequences”, Borrell stated.
“So, when we talk about fighting climate change, we have to understand their views and the feeling that this is a problem that someone has created, and others pay the consequences”, Borrell said.
“And the only possible answer is to provide more resources in order to face this problem. More resources – but it has not been the case”, he added, admitting that the rich colonizing nations of the Global North have not honored their promises to provide funding and technology transfer to help the formerly colonized nations of the Global South transition away from fossil fuels.
USA is losing hegemony; “the world is much more multipolar”
In his speech at Oxford University, Borrell conceded that “America has lost its status of a hegemon”, and the Western-dominated order created after World War Two “is losing ground”.
Today, “the world is much more multipolar”, he said, pointing to “middle powers” like India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Türkiye.
These “middle powers” are “becoming important actors”, Borrell continued. “Whether they are BRICS or not BRICS, they have very few common features, except the desire for getting more status and a stronger voice in the world, as well as greater benefits for their own development”.
“In order to achieve this, they are maximising their autonomy, not willing to take sides, hedging one side or the other depending on the moment, depending on the question”, he added.
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Rise of China changes global economic landscape
The top EU diplomat stated that “China is becoming a rival for us and for the United States”.
Borrell cited “China rising to the super-power status” as the main reason for the decline of US hegemony.
“What China has done in the last 40 years is unique in the history of humankind”, he confessed. “In the last 30 years, China’s share of the world’s GDP, at PPP, has gone from 6% to almost 20%, while we, Europeans, went from 21% to 14% and the United States from 20% to 15%”.
“This is a dramatic change of the economic landscape”, Borrell said.
The statistics he cited are based on data from the International Monetary Fund.
European exceptionalism and fearmongering about Russia
Borrell, whose five-year term as the EU’s top diplomat ends in December, is known for sometimes “saying the quiet part loud” – that is, bluntly stating truths that are widely known in elite circles, but typically left unsaid.
In a shockingly straightforward article in February 2024, Borrell acknowledged that the “era of Western dominance has indeed definitively ended”, as Geopolitical Economy Report noted at the time. The EU foreign-policy chief warned that Europe should not divide the world into “the West against the Rest”, as “many in the ‘Global South’ accuse us of ‘double standards’”.
In a blunt moment in 2022, he admitted that the West’s new cold war on China and Russia is not a battle of “democracies vs. authoritarians”, because, as Borrell put it, “On our side, there are a lot of authoritarian regimes”.
In a separate speech in 2022, the top EU diplomat discussed how the West’s “prosperity was based on China and Russia”, including “cheap energy coming from Russia”, “access to the big China market” for exports, and “Chinese workers with their low salaries, [who] have done much better and much more to contain inflation than all the central banks together”.
Despite the fact that Borrell makes these kinds of frank admissions from time to time, he is by no means a dove. In fact, as the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, he has often been quite hawkish.
This is especially the case on Russia. In his May 2024 speech at Oxford University, Borrell claimed that Russia is “the most existential threat to Europe”.
He referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as “an existential threat to all of us”, and called for Western governments to send even more weapons to Ukraine.
Borrell has also at times displayed a very racist, condescending view of the majority of the world population in the Global South.
In an infamous rant in 2022, the EU’s top diplomat argued that “the world needs Europe” as a “beacon” and beautiful “garden” to civilize the barbarous “jungle” in the Global South, as Geopolitical Economy Report highlighted.
This notorious “garden versus the jungle” speech led to global backlash, and Borrell was forced to apologize. But his worldview has not changed since.
In his remarks two years later at Oxford, Borrell again demonstrated a kind of arrogant European exceptionalism.
“The way of living of the Europeans, this best combination of political freedom, economic prosperity and social cohesion that the humanity has never been able to invent, is certainly in danger”, he said.
Borrell concluded the talk referring to Europe’s system as “the best combination of political freedom, economic prosperity and social cohesion that humanity has never been able to invent”.
Ben Norton
Benjamin Norton is the founder and editor of the independent news website Multipolarista, where he does original reporting in both English and Spanish. Benjamin has reported from numerous countries, including Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Colombia, and more. His journalistic work has been published in dozens of media outlets, and he has done interviews on Sky News, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now, El Financiero Bloomberg, Al Mayadeen teleSUR, RT, TRT World, CGTN, Press TV, HispanTV, Sin Censura, and various TV channels in Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia. Benjamin writes a regular column for Al Mayadeen (in English and Spanish). He was formerly a reporter with the investigative journalism website The Grayzone, and previously produced the political podcast and video show Moderate Rebels. His personal website is BenNorton.com, and he tweets at @BenjaminNorton.
