Maria João RODRIGUES

FEPS President

Europe has a choice between accepting pressure to align with the Trump administration, remaining in the inertia of the previous multilateral system, or becoming an active player in reforming global multilateralism.

Can we sense undeniable historical regression? Yes, we can if a civilisational achievement of humankind as a whole starts to be dismantled. This is what is happening currently to some of the multilateral system’s critical components: peace and security, climate, health, poverty, human rights and digital transformation.

Can this regression be led by those who led this historical progression in the past? Paradoxically, yes. This is what is happening now when the Trump administration disengages from multilateral work on climate, health, food, sustainable development goals, peace and, more recently, open and regulated trade with a tariff war that can bring enduring stagflation – combining inflation with recession and job losses across the world – and a tariff bargain that will turn the world into a big bazaar for everything.

Can these become even worse? Yes, if this approach replaces a rule-based order with a power-based order, where great powers fight for large areas of influence and access to resources, whatever the cost, and bring a systemic shock to multilateral governance.

Do we really need multilateral global governance? Certainly yes. This has become an issue not only of inclusion and representativeness in global governance but also one of effectiveness when dealing with the current global challenges. It has become a matter of common interest and of survival for all humankind.

To prevent the historical regression currently underway, is it enough to defend the multilateral system as we have it now? Not at all, because ours is ineffective, non-representative and unfair. The only way out is to advocate a deeply reformed multilateralism, stronger to enforce peace and security, fight climate change, prevent pandemics, reduce poverty, frame the digital transformation and implement the Sustainable Development Goals with much powerful financial means. We also need a fairer distribution of these means and of access to resources and knowledge, enabling development countries to have a real chance to catch up and leapfrog to a new development strategy, making the best of the green and digital transitions. This can only be possible if the multilateral system reflects a more inclusive and representative global governance giving a stronger voice to developing countries and to a large range of civil society actors.

There is a blueprint to guide this reform of the multilateral system, which was adopted by a large majority of UN member states just before Trump’s election. In September 2024, the Summit of the Future in New York managed, after a complex negotiation process, to adopt a Pact for the Future which identifies key reforms to better implement the Sustainable Development Goals, to change the global financial architecture, to improve the access to science and technology, to define a global frame to govern the digital transition and AI, as well as to update the composition of the UN Security Council, and to push for a new peace agenda.

This year is also a year of opportunity, which will be created by a sequence of United Nations summits which will focus on critical components of this Pact for the Future and bring about more precise and operational plans to implement it. The UN Conference on Financing for Development in Seville in July; the UN Summit on Information Society in Geneva also in July; the COP on climate change in Belem in November, and the UN Summit on Social Development in Doha also in November 2025.

It is vital to organise coalitions of the willing, develop new alliances and partnerships for concrete commitments in these summits, and introduce new methods to improve multilateral work. Europe has a choice between accepting pressures to align with the Trump administration, remaining in the inertia of the previous multilateral system, or becoming an active player in this reform of multilateralism. The European progressive actors, in political institutions as well as in civil society, have a particular responsibility to push for this third choice.

Can this succeed? Yes, because despite a powerful and organised far-right international, there are many other forces pushing in the right direction: an increasing range of actors inside and outside the US, more informed citizens, despite the misinformation in social networks and a general rebalancing of the world limiting the power of the established hegemon. Finally, a compelling argument: the global challenges ahead cannot really be met without much stronger international cooperation. There is a high chance that the regression in the short term can be overcome by a progression in the long term. Let us work to increase these chances.

Photo credits: Shutterstock.com/Mike Gorsky