Twice it became a trend Javier Lopez, co-president of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat), in a matter of minutes. First to precede the speech of the vice president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in the CCK before more than 100 parliamentarians from Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean, when he said that felt like “opener for the Beatles”. Then when Cristina confused his name and called him “Jordi” more than once for “watching so many Spanish series on Netflix.” “The public relevance of their appearances in the country is evident”said the Spanish MEP smiling in dialogue with Page 12.
The 14th plenary session of EuroLat took place this week for the first time in Buenos Aires under the motto “A fair and inclusive economic recovery in peace”. His co-president, the Spanish Javi López, stressed that the fight against the covid-19 pandemic continues, so “It is necessary to continue distributing the vaccine in an accessible way to guarantee that there are no new strains”. The other focus of this assembly was on the Russian invasion of Ukraine: López approved the rain of sanctions from the European Union (EU) on Moscow and does not hesitate to point to Russia as solely responsible for the conflict. In addition, the MEP remarks that an agreement between the EU and Mercosur would be “the most relevant to be signed in the world to date” and supports the Argentine claim for the sovereignty of Malvinas.
– How do you characterize what is happening in Ukraine more than 50 days ago?
– It is about aggression, the invasion by a nuclear force of a third country, basically typical of the logic of the right of conquest that we experienced very much during the great wars in Europe. Russia is flagrantly violating international law.
– You said a month ago that the current situation in Ukraine required a European “hard power”. What exactly was he referring to?
– In Europe we feel comfortable with soft power: diplomacy, investment, trade, cooperation. The logic of hard power and military defense is somewhat foreign to us. The truth is that the reality of the world in which we operate today, whether we like it more or less, is a world of high geopolitical competition between great powers that use harsher language and we have to be able to accommodate ourselves. Sometimes I give the example that we Europeans sometimes feel like herbivores in a world of carnivores.
– Does it coincide with the battery of sanctions against Russia?
– Of course, and not just me, the European Parliament, with a huge majority, approved the resolution on the European response to Russia, which included, among many other things, the demand for sanctions. Russia must be made to pay the highest possible international and economic price that is within our reach for the aggression committed and provide military assistance to Ukraine. For what purpose? A negotiated and diplomatic way out of the situation. That is the European recipe for the current situation.
– Some analysts believe that there is a shared responsibility in this conflict, citing for example the role of NATO.
– I believe that the responsibility for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine lies solely and exclusively with Russia, not to say solely and exclusively with Putin, who is the person who made the decision. There are no more responsible. That later NATO’s expansion policy to the east deserves a debate, well, sure, but the problem is whether that debate ends up reducing the responsibility of the only person responsible, or ends up justifying, albeit inadvertently, the responsibility of the only person responsible.
– The worst stage of the covid-19 pandemic is behind us, do you think we came out better?
– I do not know. I know we came out different. I think the world has known itself to be more vulnerable in these last two years, and then this paradox between being forced to be isolated and being more aware of your interconnectedness. I believe it is true that the role of the State has been reinforced, I believe that it is a correct analysis of what happened during the pandemic. The State, not as a carcass, but as a public institution that has the obligation to care for and protect citizens, has been absolutely necessary during these last two years in the health field and in the economic field.
– Latin America was the region hardest hit by the pandemic. Is there some kind of self-criticism on the part of Europe?
– Surely Europe should have done more, but at the same time I would tell you that Europe with the vaccination process acted very differently from the Anglo-Saxon world, which basically exported vaccines after having been vaccinated. For us, during the vaccination process, half of what was produced in Europe was exported and the other half was used for our vaccination process. But in addition, the fact that in the demographically largest country on the continent there was a denialist president (by Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil), it has had a huge impact on the death toll in the country and in the region. So I honestly believe that each one could have done things better.
– There has been a lot of talk for several years about a European Union-Mercosur agreement. Is it still a chimera?
– I believe that a Europe-Mercosur association agreement is the most relevant agreement to be signed in the world to date, the largest for the European Union in economic and demographic terms. At the same time, and having said that, there are debates both here and there around the distributional effects of trade, if it ends up causing specialization in a series of sectors and that can create a vulnerability. And then we also have a very strong debate that has provoked in some way Bolsonaro’s policies in the Amazon, around the environmental dimension of the agreements. It is a live debate that has elements that we must be able to discuss, think about and attend to.
– One of the issues that is often fervently debated in our region is the situation in Venezuela.
– From the European Parliament we denounce the situation of institutional crisis that the country is experiencing, with enormous economic and humanitarian consequences. And at the same time we believe that the only possible way out is one negotiated by the parties. That is why the potential talks in Mexico are so important to us, because it will be the only way for Venezuelans to get out of this serious crisis that the country is experiencing.
– Don’t you think that a lot is pointed out in Venezuela or Nicaragua when it comes to talking about potential human rights violations, and other countries are forgotten?
– Yes, I think so, in fact it is something that (the president of Chile) Gabriel Boric said here and I totally agree. Like Boric, I denounce what is happening in Nicaragua or Venezuela, which seems extremely serious to us, but at the same time I demand that the demand for human rights not be a political battering ram, a political form of attack. Human rights are a universal value that deserves demand anywhere, to any person.
– Was the Argentine claim for the sovereignty of the Malvinas treated during this assembly?
– Yes, the claim has been present in our discussions. The Eurolat assembly held a seminar on the subject at the Foreign Ministry, after a meal with the Foreign Minister (Santiago Cafiero). And also basically recalling the position that the assembly had already established in the past, which is the need for a negotiated, peaceful and lasting solution with respect to public international law, which includes compliance with United Nations resolutions.