Check against delivery! 

I just want to thank you for joining us in Brussels, to thank again the European Parliament and the organisers, the staff, and everybody. Thanks a lot. 

It was important to have this meeting because world peace is much in danger. 

I remember in my quite long life many other moments of crisis. During the so-called “cold war” - well, a war [is] better cold than hot - better cold than hot - because when they heat, something very bad happens.  

We, Europeans, face two brutal wars close to our borders and a lot of tensions that can very easily to spiral out of control - in Libya, in [the] Sahel, in [the] Western Balkans, in the Caucasus, in Sudan, in the Horn of Africa, in the borders of the [Democratic] Republic of Congo, in the Gulf, in the South China Sea, in South Asia, [and] gangs and drug cartels in Latin America and Central America. You can choose. Unhappily, I cannot choose I have to deal with all of them. 

Some of these crises could even escalate into a major global confrontation at a time when the world has become multipolar, and the multilateral system supposed to maintain peace is profoundly weakened.  

And even the institutions, which are the core of the United Nations system, like the International Court of Justice (ICJ), can be weakened.  

If the rulings of the International Court of Justice are not being obeyed, then the world will be in a much [more] dire situation. And we will not call on the International Court of Justice again next time if this time its ruling is not being implemented - and it is not. It is not. 

I know that geography matters. The wars which are close to us matter more than the wars which are far away. But all of them are interconnected. Any war, any crisis anywhere affects any other place in the world.  

Public goods are threatened – from energy prices to freedom of navigation, to [everything] you have been talking about. 

So please, this meeting was necessary and important. It is the second step in the direction of the Europeans engaging with the rest of the world, and the rest of the world engaging with us.  

You were not invited here to be lectured, or to be indoctrinated, or to be invited to follow a thinking or our interests. 

You have been invited to come here to share your concerns, your points of view, your priorities, [and] your differences. And I had a lot of bilateral [meetings] during these plenaries, and many of them expressed quite strongly your differences, your concerns, [and] your criticisms.  

Well, I think it is part of my job. It is part of the job of the [European] External Action Service and their people, who try to make Europe exist in its role as a security provider.  

That, I think, was a success because you came. We talked, we listened [to] each other, and now you go back home and will continue working from one crisis to another.  

Believe me, we want to be a peace force in the world, [with] all our limitations, knowing that sometimes our interests are stronger than [the] fulfilment of our values because we are political organisations. Everybody has [their] own interests. 

But apart from that, which is the human nature, we want to build alliances and we want to build partnerships to continue constructing a world in peace where political freedom, economic prosperity and coherent societies could be the future of mankind. 

And I thank you, all of you, for your support. 

Thank you. 

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-257679