Alternativas Foundation asserts that the EU’s “double standards” in Ukraine and Gaza seriously damage its “moral authority”

Eduardo González The Alternativas Foundation has warned that the EU's "double standards" regarding Ukraine and the genocide in Gaza contradict its own "identity" as a "peace force" and could undermine its "prestige and moral authority," likely permanently. This is one of the conclusions of the report "The State of the European Union 2025," presented this Wednesday by the Alternativas Foundation. The report analyzes the "profound transformation of the geopolitical and geoeconomic order" facing the continent in the second quarter of the 21st century and examines how the European Union should address significant challenges related to this shift in the global order, as well as the internal policies that fall under the Union's purview, including the triple transformation: digital, ecological, and social. “The international community that emerged from the post-war period eighty years ago is now facing the ambition of powers like the United States, China, and Russia to dismantle the multilateral nature of a global order symbolized by the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions,” the think tank states. “The aim is to replace it with a nationalist, isolationist, and protectionist order,” it continues. Donald Trump’s statements on November 5, 2024, after winning the US presidential election, which aligned with the proposals he made during the campaign and, in turn, with the decisions he adopted after his inauguration on January 20, 2025, confirmed a “new political beginning that is altering his relations with the rest of the world and, above all, with Europe and the European Union,” Alternativas continues. These initial trends have persisted and even intensified during these first eight months, it adds. The report continues, adding that the strengthening of Trump and his ties with tech magnates, which have gained particular prominence, is compounded by the potential confrontation between the EU and China over its tariff policies. Furthermore, the report warns that the stabilization of Russian aggression against Ukraine and its unpredictable outcome are significant. In this regard, the report highlights the failure of Russia's strategy, as it believed it would achieve its objectives of overthrowing the Ukrainian government of Volodymyr Zelenskyy within two months by seizing the capital, Kyiv, and installing a puppet government. "It managed to occupy 70% of the invaded territory, but has had to withdraw successively, now holding just under 20%," and, for the moment, "there is no indication that the situation will change drastically," it adds. Regarding the genocide in Gaza, the Alternativas document expresses its bewilderment at the attitudes of the highest-ranking officials in EU institutions and asks: "Where has European identity gone?" In this regard, the think tank warns that this is not merely a moral reflection, but a “constitutional and political question” directly related to European identity. It is constitutional because its Treaties define the EU as a “peacekeeping force” committed to the unconditional defense of international law as the sole basis for global order. And it is political, the report points out, because the “damage inflicted on the EU’s prestige and moral authority” in the world by the double standards applied to Ukraine and Gaza is enormous, “and we shall see if it is not permanent.” Strategic defensive autonomy, but also social autonomy In this context, the Alternativas Foundation believes that the European Union must resume the process of building its “strategic autonomy,” also in the field of security and defense, creating the necessary structures to assume its common defense “without depending on an external power that takes advantage of this dependence to exert political and economic control over Europe,” and which, in practice, restricts the external action that the Union must freely carry out to “defend its values and interests” without interference. Therefore, it continues, it is essential to develop a robust, advanced, and cost-effective European “Industrial and Technological Defense Base” to avoid depending, in the defense sector, on supplies of equipment, weapons, and platforms “from other countries,” which can condition their use or restrict the delivery of technological upgrades or spare parts and, in any case, keep the profits from these acquisitions. However, the Alternativas Foundation warns about the importance of ensuring that the EU's social dimension “is not relegated.” Investments in security and defense are important in the new international context, but “they cannot sustainably boost economies or address the everyday social problems of the population.” In the organization's view, it is essential to distinguish between “internal and external economic competitiveness.” External competitiveness is “indispensable in the new geoeconomic situation” and refers to the entire Union as a whole, but external competitiveness cannot be strengthened solely by increasing internal competitiveness, as this “could lead to a downward spiral” in areas such as social investment, social services, wages, social protection standards, and taxation.

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