EU's Kallas Rebuts US Claims Of Europe's 'Civilisational Erasure'

MUNICH, Feb 15 (Bernama-dpa) -- EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Sunday pushed back against the Trump administration’s portrayal of Europe as being in terminal decline, casting the continent instead as a global standard-bearer for prosperity and freedom, reported German news agency dpa.

Kallas, speaking on the final day of the Munich Security Conference, said Europeans enjoyed "excellent living standards" that were the envy of people around the world, noting a survey that showed some 40 per cent of Canadians would like to join the European Union.

She was responding to Washington’s assessment, laid out most starkly in a recent 33-page National Security Strategy, that Europe risks "civilisational erasure" due to migration, cultural and religious change, and declining birthrates. The report suggested the continent could be "unrecognisable" within two decades.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed that view in a speech on Saturday at the conference of world leaders, military officials and policymakers.

Trump administration officials have also accused European governments of stifling dissenting voices, espcially on the right.

"Contrary to what some may say, woke, decadent Europe is not facing civilisational erasure," Kallas said during her opening remarks.

She later said that "European bashing" had become fashionable in certain political circles, despite the EU's success in "pushing humanity forward."

Kallas, the former prime minister of Estonia, noted that her home country ranks second on Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index.

"Hearing criticism regarding press freedom coming from a country that is 58 on this list, it's interesting," Kallas said of the United States.

In fact, the US placed 57th in the latest rankings.

--BERNAMA-dpa