PDT MARCON & OTHER EUROPEAN LEADERS DEBATE AT PARIS PEACE FORUM 20 AMID COVID-19

USPA NEWS - This year, the Paris Peace Forum took place in Paris from November 11 to 13, 2020, at a distance given the current confinement situation in France, established since October 30, to fight against the spread of COVID-19. On the first day, November 11, 2020, the opening ceremony took place at 2 p.m. The next day, November 12, 2020, a succession of events, both at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as at the Elysee at the French Presidency. Thus on November 12, 2020, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, received at the Elysee Palace, Mr. Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal, Mr. Charles Michel, President of the European Council, and Ms. Kristalina Gueorguieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, for a working meeting. Ms Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations and Ms Ursula Von Der Leyen, President of the European Commission, also took part in the meeting by videoconference.

PRESIDENT MACRON STARTS A COLLECTIVE REFLECTION ON THE OVERHAUL OF MULTILATERALISM------ This year, the Paris Peace Forum is part of the dynamic initiated by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, to reaffirm the importance of multilateralism and collective action. It is built around 3 axes: 1-The objectives: to encourage international cooperation and collective action for a world at peace; 2-The means: to present, discuss and advance concrete and innovative solutions; 3-The ambitions: to strengthen, rethink or create new rules, standards and good practices. This meeting aimed to initiate a collective reflection on the overhaul of multilateralism, through a common observation of the challenges facing the world today on subjects such as climate, health, the fight against inequalities or the defense of rights. fundamentals in the digital age. Its objective was to define the main principles which should guide our collective response to these challenges. The Paris Peace Forum brings together all stakeholders in global governance - States, international organizations, local governments, NGOs and foundations, companies, journalists, unions, religious groups and citizens - to present solutions for a better organization of the planet . Given the health context, the entirety of this third edition is taking place by videoconference.

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MACRON AT PARIS PEACE FORUM 2020----------------------------------------------------------- « Two years ago, we celebrated the centenary of the end of the First World War. In order not to make history stutter, to build together the useful responses of our world, we then launched the Paris Forum for Peace. For 2 years, life has been even harder. A pandemic has hit the world in unprecedented ways and changed our lives. Terrorism hits hard in Europe and elsewhere, again yesterday on the African continent. The tensions are extreme and the challenges are there to remind us of the complexity of the problems we face. These challenges are added to those we have known for decades: the climate challenge, and the challenge of inequalities which is linked to the exhaustion and disruption of our economic and financial model. » President Emmanuel Macron introduced.

ALL THESE CHALLENGES IMPLY MORE INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION------------------------------------------------- President Emmanuel Macron introduced highlighted the current global context and its impacts on multilateralism « All these challenges imply more international cooperation. These challenges come at a time when our multilateralism is extremely weakened either because new regional powers are emerging with agendas, objectives that are no longer compatible with it, or because we have collectively weakened this multilateralism by sometimes making it the same. hostage to our special interests or our disagreements. Much needs to be rebuilt because we have never been so interdependent. Basically, the fates of an inhabitant of Rio, Lagos, Canberra, Vienna, Paris, Dakar have never been so linked as today by commerce, by digital technology, by conscience. This is the role that social networks play. »

WE MUST AGREE ON THE SAME READING OF THE WORLD-------------------------------------------------------------------- President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged the importance of facing the next challenges to come, over the COVID-19 outbreak « We must agree on the same reading of the world, do it between developed countries and developing countries, emerging countries, whatever the levels of economic, financial and social development. Because these challenges are the same for everyone.Because we cannot succeed on each of the challenges without each other. How can we effectively guarantee universal access to the means to fight our pandemic? This is the first challenge. From the start of the crisis, we launched the ACT-A initiative around WHO with several countries, with the firepower of the G20 and also regional, non-governmental and private sector forces. One goal: to find the vaccine. One line: health is a global public good. »---------------- President Emmanuel Macron emphasized about the climate changes issues « On the climate, how to be in reality and not in words? How can we live up to the ambitions we set for ourselves 5 years ago by adopting the Paris climate agreement even as each of our countries is fighting against a health, economic and social crisis of unprecedented scale? Our conviction - I think I can say it - is that fundamentally, after the battle against the virus, the reconquest, the economic recovery, must be an overhaul through ecological transformation and the response to the challenges of climate and biodiversity.

OUR CHALLENGE IS TO ACCELERATE THE FUNDING THAT ENABLES TRANSFORMATION-------------------------- President Emmanuel Macron recalled « Our challenge is to accelerate the funding that enables transformation. How to transform the rules of contemporary globalization to respond to the unprecedented explosion of inequalities? How can we rebuild international trade that is fairer, that responds to these inequalities? We can see it very clearly, inequalities occur within our countries, between countries and between generations. The openness of our economies is threatened by extremes in our countries, by the doubt that has set in. These international rules are a key challenge which must be at the heart of this new consensus.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How to defend the universal values “‹“‹and the fundamental rights proclaimed in the Charter in the 21st century, in the face of a historic setback all over the world?The universality of our values “‹“‹is today shaken up by hate speech, by a habit, in a way, of terrorist acts. We must not only condemn, but also defend this universality of values. This is a job that we started with the Christchurch call a year and a half ago. We must continue. This is also work that will be done internationally. We face these immense challenges even as we manage the emergency in our societies. We cannot wait to have waged these emergency wars to rebuild the fundamentals that will better prevent them. »

« IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES » CHARLES DICKENS SAID The time has come to somehow reverse the order of the terms Charles Dickens used on the Revolution. He wrote: "It was the worst of times, it was the best of times." We have tasted the worst a little this year and we must do everything to ensure that the year 2021 allows us, in the face of these challenges, to all move forward faster. We will do it. We will do it with all the women and men of good will: international organizations, governments, but also NGOs, think tanks, researchers, companies, citizens, because we are convinced that it is in the plurality of this capacity to act that we will have an answer. We will do it. TOGETHER. » President Emmanuel Macron declared as he concluded.../