Europe Facing Intractable Crises, Op-ed

In a lengthy interview with “Le Grand Continent” magazine, French President Emmanuel Macron called to revamp the international institutions, stating that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is not providing useful solutions. Macron also pointed out, “the multilateral cooperation frameworks are weakened today because they are blocked.”

He said, “I have to say that the UN Security Council no longer offers useful solutions today; we all have our responsibility to bear when some, such as the WHO, find themselves hostages of the crises of multilateralism,” adding “We need to reinvent useful forms of cooperation – coalitions of projects and players – and we need to modernize our structures and create a level playing field for everyone.”

In this regard, the French President indicated that the correct “path” at the present time is “to strengthen and build Europe,” and affirmed that he “strongly opposes” an article published in "The politico" by Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, in which she stated that “Illusions of European strategic independence must end: Europeans will not be able to play America's crucial role as a security provider. "

These remarks coincide with the decision of the French authorities on October 29 to raise the terrorism alert to its highest level, after recording three terrorist attacks in one month that targeted different locations.

As a result of a knife attack, two people were wounded near the former offices of the satirical French magazine “Charlie Hebdo” at the end of September. Moreover, a teacher who showed his pupils the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad- peace be upon him- was beheaded in mid-October, as well as Nice stabbing attack which took place in a church and resulted in three deaths.

In addition, a few days ago, Paris marked the 5th anniversary of the bloody attacks, in which more than 130 people were killed, lifting French public opinion in a real shock. In order to face these terrorist threats on its territory, whether internal or planned from abroad, which reached their maximum levels, Paris strengthened human and legislative mechanisms to combat terrorism.

Some may think that the threat has become a secondary matter in recent years as other dilemmas came to the surface, such as the yellow jackets or the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, the figures show that the threat remains high; over the last five years, 20 attacks were carried out in France, as well as 61 others were thwarted.

It is estimated that 100 to 200 French jihadists reside between Iraq and Syria. All of them possess weapons, money, and ammunition. It is wrong to think that they are unable to cross the border secretly to reach the French state; this is evidenced by the arrival of the young Tunisian who carried out a recent criminal attack in Nice.

According to investigators in Tunis and Sicily, this young Tunisian disappeared on September 14 and arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa on September 20, aboard a small fishing boat, accompanied by 20 other Tunisian youths, without identity papers.

Upon his arrival in Italy, he was subjected to interrogation and then underwent a coronavirus test before he was photographed and registered by the competent authorities. After that, he spent 10 days in Sicily without his movements being monitored, and he may have traveled illegally via "Ventimiglia" which lies on the border with France.

There is another problem related to the file of prisoners convicted of terrorism charges and those who released from prison; those persons raise the concern of both French and European intelligence. This was reinforced with the Vienna attack, which was carried out by a person who was freed at the end of 2019 after spending eight months in prison for trying to travel to Syria.

So France and many European countries suffer from external and internal threats; This is what pushed the French President, in his recent remarks, to insist on the necessity of rebuilding the European house in terms of security, economic, and social aspects.

I do not think this will be easy for the quality of the new post-Corona world order, where the closed nature of its countries will be the rule, not to mention the monopoly and the Chinese-American conflict, which do not bode well.