On July 7, the Foreign ministers of Germany, France, Egypt and Jordan held an important discussion on the risks linked to the unilateral annexation of parts of the West Bank. Unfortunately I could not attend as I was travelling in order to deal with other equally important issues. The EU was represented by the Secretary General of the EEAS and the EU Special Representative for the Middle East.

“Demography is destiny” said the sociologist Auguste Comte: the basic idea is that population trends and distributions determine the future of a country or region. Recently, my colleague Dubravka Suica, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for demography and democracy, provided us with an analysis of the foreseeable consequences of the demographic changes underway in Europe and globally. This work deserves our full attention, because this subject is both central to the Union's internal affairs and for its place in the world.