US president urges continent to not give in to ‘fears over security and inequality’ by creating new barriers

The world needs a strong, democratic and united Europe, Barack Obama said on Monday, to guard against rising intolerance and authoritarianism within the European Union and across the globe.



In an ambitious and sweeping speech urging modern Europe to remember its emergence from division, war and hatred, the US president said: “We cannot allow fears about security and inequality to undermine our commitment to universal values. That is a false comfort.”

Speaking in Germany on the final day of his tour of Europe and the Middle East, Obama had a blunt message for the continent. “Perhaps you need an outsider to remind you of the magnitude of what you have achieved from the ruins of the second world war.”

His speech in Hanover will be seen as another call for Britain not to leave the European Union after warning at his press conference in London on Friday that Brexit would place the UK at “the back of the queue” in any trade deals with the US. The speech also demonstrated a strong personal defence of Angela Merkel’s liberal approach to refugees. He said this was a defining moment for Europe in which it could choose pluralism or, in rejecting its own progress, give support to those who argue democracy cannot work.

Obama – who is to hold talks on Monday afternoon with the leaders of Germany, France, Italy and the UK – also announced the US would be sending an extra 300 troops to Syria, mainly special forces, to help train local fighters, predominantly Kurds fighting Isis in the country’s north. He said Europe had been complacent on defence and warned that at the next Nato summit in Warsaw this summer he will seek more contributions to the US-led air campaign against Isis in Syria and Iraq.

But his chief message in the setpiece speech of his tour was a call for Europe to show confidence in its achievements, and not to be attracted to the populist right or left. “These are unsettling times and when the future is uncertain there seems to be an instinct in human nature to withdraw to the perceived comfort of our own tribe, our own sect, our own nationality: people who look like us, sound like us,” he said.

“But in today’s world more than in any time in our human history that is a false comfort. It pits people against one another because of what they look like, or how they pray or who they love.” Obama said that “twisted thinking can lead to oppression, segregation, internment camps and to Srebrenica”.

Apparently referring to some of the rhetoric of the right in both Europe and the US, he admitted the politics of immigration is hard in every country. There is a danger, he said, that the loudest voices win out, creating a them-and-us culture.

He said: “I want you to remember that our countries are stronger, they’re more secure and more successful when we integrate people of all backgrounds and faiths, and make them feel as one. And that includes our fellow citizens who are Muslim.”

Persistent challenges, including the 2008 financial crisis and wage inequality, had led some to question whether European integration could no longer endure, he said, and whether Europe would be better off redrawing some of the barriers and walls between nations.



“If we do not solve these problems, you see those who would like to exploit these fears and channel them in a destructive way. A creeping emergence of the kind of politics that Europe was founded to reject – an us-versus-them mentality. You see increasing intolerance in our politics and loud voices get the most attention.

“So this is a defining moment and what happens on this continent has consequences around the globe. If a peaceful, unified, pluralistic, liberal, free-market Europe begins to question the progress that has been made then we cannot expect the progress that is just now taking place around the world will continue. Instead we will be empowering those who argue that democracy cannot work.”

Obama conceded there were legitimate concerns about how global forces had deepened inequality. He also acknowledged that democracy could be slow, messy and frustrating. The EU could sometimes feel like an extra layer of bureaucracy, he said, but the answer lay in reform, rather than resorting to oppression or fear. “The answer is not to start cutting off from one another, rather it is to work together.”

Obama – who has often been accused of being indifferent to the plight of Europe, and turning America to the Pacific – started his speech by saying he had “come to the heart of Europe to say the US and the entire world needs a strong, prosperous, democratic and united Europe.”

He called for greater optimism in Europe, saying: “If someone had to choose a moment in time to be born, you would choose today.

“We are living in the most peaceful, prosperous and progressive era in human history. It has been decades since there has been a major war between major powers, more people live in democracies, a billion people have been lifted from global poverty, middle classes have been created from Africa to Asia …

“This is not to say there is not enormous suffering, but the trajectory of the past 50 to 100 years is remarkable and should not be taken for granted.”