The EU, a Global Pillar of Multilateralism
The first steps for that
The defining policy of the second Trump administration—and arguably the most disruptive,
given its serious consequences for the rest of the world—is the systematic weakening of
multilateral institutions. This goes well beyond the U.S. withdrawal from dozens of
international organizations and the erosion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization: above
all, it involves illegal wars, repeated attacks on the International Criminal Court, and
violations of the trade rules set by the World Trade Organization.
Within the administration, this policy has a staunch advocate and driving force: Secretary of
State Marco Rubio. That, at least, is the argument made by Amanda Klasing in a Foreign
Policy article titled “Marco Rubio Burned Down the House to Fix a Sink,” with the telling
subtitle “The secretary of state must be seen as the chief architect of the Trump
administration’s assault on the rules-based order” [1].
In a world where the very country that created the major multilateral organizations—from
the United Nations to the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank—is now undermining them,
finding a political community willing to defend an open world order based on cooperation
and shared rules was no easy task. Despite its institutional weaknesses, the EU has shown
that courage. Since the start of this year, it has responded to U.S. protectionism by using
its exclusive competences to pursue trade agreements with the world’s major regions,
signing deals with the Mercosur countries (which Italy has yet to ratify), India, Mexico,
Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
The most significant step, however, came recently in European Commission President
Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union address (September 16, 2026). Addressing
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, she said the EU intends to move from “CETA to an
Alliance for the Future, to create a common space of prosperity and economic security,”
adding that she wished to “begin the process of welcoming Canada as the EU’s first
associate member.”
Carney replied the next day: “Yesterday, President von der Leyen spoke of moving beyond
CETA toward an alliance for the future—opening the door to Canada becoming the European
Union’s first associate member. Canada welcomes this ambition: polls show that the
overwhelming majority of Canadians support much closer ties with Europe.” He then set out
concrete proposals for cooperation between Canada and the EU on critical materials, AI,
energy, and financial market integration. His remarks thus cast doubt on European media
reports that he had been caught off guard by von der Leyen’s statements, and make the
fine distinctions some European politicians have drawn between “associated member
country” and “associated state” seem less important.
A few days later, the EU took a further step to strengthen multilateralism. On September
21, on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, it launched the “Partners for
Multilateralism” initiative (P4M Summit) together with Australia, Barbados, Brazil, Canada,
India, and Kenya (https://www.consilium.europa.eu/it/events/p4m-summit/). Albania,
Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Finland, Guatemala, Liechtenstein,
Luxembourg, Moldova, Norway, San Marino, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, and Uruguay have
since joined the initiative, which aims to reform and strengthen multilateral institutions.
The Final Declaration issued at the launch states, among other things: “We reaffirm that
the multilateral system founded on the United Nations Charter remains indispensable. It has
helped provide a framework for peace, decolonization, prosperity, and human dignity. It
must now respond to a world that is more interconnected and complex, more contested, and
more multipolar.”
“We affirm the need to uphold and enforce the rules, principles, and commitments that
remain essential to the international order, while renewing and reforming the multilateral
system so that it is more effective, representative, inclusive, and fit for purpose”[2].
In a joint op-ed, European Council President António Costa and Brazilian President Inácio
Lula da Silva listed the major challenges facing every country (“The climate emergency is
going beyond even the most alarming predictions. Artificial intelligence is advancing faster
than our capacity to control it. Pandemics can spread across continents in weeks, while
financial shocks can disrupt markets in hours. Armed conflicts can destabilize entire
regions and force millions to flee their homes. Global maritime chokepoints, such as the
Strait of Hormuz, constrained by conflicts, can paralyze supply chains around the world”)
and stressed that “No country, however powerful, can manage these challenges alone.
Cooperation is not an act of idealism; it is a practical necessity.”[3]
What stands out about this initiative is the participation of BRICS members such as Brazil
and India, and their commitment to upholding and enforcing the rules and principles
essential to the international order, and to reforming the multilateral system to make it
more representative and inclusive, so that it can serve the purposes for which it was
created some eighty years ago.
Finally, a broader point about the European Union. Through the initiatives it has taken
since the start of the year, the EU is emerging on the global stage as the hub for efforts to
strengthen the world order by reforming multilateral institutions, making them more
inclusive and less dependent on the will of the United States. And there is more. These
initiatives also show that, by exercising the powers conferred on it by the treaties, the EU
can pursue an innovative foreign policy of its own, expressed through its trade, alliance,
enlargement, and association policies. The common criticism that the EU has no foreign
policy is therefore unfounded. It is right to urge the EU to develop one, but we should
remember that we are not starting from scratch each time; the task is to consolidate and
expand what, to a large extent, already exists.
Notes
[1] Foreign Policy, July 8, 2026, https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/07/08/marco-rubio-secretary-
state-trump-administration-human-rights/.
[2] https://www.consilium.europa.eu/it/press/press-releases/2026/09/21/declaration-of-the-
partners-for-multilateralism-p4m-summit-21-september-2026/
[3] https://www.consilium.europa.eu/it/press/press-releases/2026/09/21/multilateralism-is-not-
idealism-it-s-a-necessity-op-ed-article-by-president-antonio-costa-president-inacio-lula-da-
silva-president-william-ruto-and-prime-minister-mark-carney/
