Last week, I was invited to speak at #Arendalsuka in Norway, and I said what too many refuse to:

👉 Europe is declining not only economically, but morally
👉 Norway’s oil fund was the largest European investor in Israel’s occupation
👉 We brand ourselves as green, while expanding fossil fuels

Europe’s only chance to survive is to act on values, not just self-interests.

The future is up to us. ✊ Watch the video and tell me what you think.

Here's the transcript of the speech

Hi everyone! 

Before we get started, can you raise your hand if, when you learned about WW2 in school, you discussed with your friends, teachers, or family how you would have resisted & what you would have done after? 

I did. As children, we always said and believed we would be on the right side of history. However, it's not what we are doing now. Too often, we are passive or complicit in wrongs. I’m not saying this to shame you or myself. But to use it as a wake-up call. My middle school self would want better from us, and I bet yours would too.

My name is Colombe, I’ve spent the last five years of my life chasing the dream of building a global political party, Atlas, the first of its kind, to bring people together across borders to confront the biggest threats of our time, from climate change to pandemics and wars. Before that, I co-founded a pan-European political party, Volt, which now sits in the European Parliament and many other halls of power across Europe. European collaboration was born out of the dream of ensuring that hatred and divisions didn’t overtake our continent, again. It was meant to build a tomorrow where people can live in peace, prosperity, and a thriving environment.

Instead, we see our countries and continent declining not only demographically and economically, but morally too, supporting genocidal countries, buying oil from dictators, or contributing to the climate collapse.

So what can we do? What must we do to live up to our middle school selves? 

Let me start with my deep belief. Europe’s, and our countries’, only chance at remaining relevant and resilient is to act based on values, not just its economic or strategic interests. This is how we set ourselves apart from the likes of China and the US.

We call ourselves the champions of human rights. Yet, European countries have been some of Israel’s strongest supporters throughout its occupation, apartheid, and war on Palestinians. This country, where this conference is taking place, despite itself calling out the hypocrisy of the West, refused to divest its wealth fund and was thus the largest European investor in Israel’s occupation. This made Norway directly complicit in Israel’s crimes. We want a green Europe, right? Many countries like Norway are making big efforts to decarbonise, while ramping up their oil and gas industry. 

I’m pointing those out, but my country France is no better than yours. It’s a problem we all have. So, for Europe to act based on values, it’s up to us to do something about it. 

You can go the institutional route, getting into the enormous machines that are your government, or other organisations such as the UN, and trying to do good from the inside. 

Or you can yield enough money and influence to bend the will of institutions to your own. I find this scary as hell and a dystopian universe we are living through now, that I’d personally rather see the end of, but that’s a way, I guess.

But that’s not all. You can act, you can spark a flame. Through years of activism and politics, I have learnt that most change comes from people rallying. History teaches us that when people rally, we can move mountains and cross oceans. Look at the suffragist movement or the anti apartheid one in South Africa.

So, back to what you can do. You can join existing grassroots or political campaigns pushing for change. It works. Remember how I told you about Norway’s complicity in Israel’s crimes? Well, you surely know that following protests & pieces of journalism the Norwegian government divested its wealth fund's investments from several companies in Israel. Environmental groups also used civil disobedience to block oil infrastructures and lawsuits to ban the development of oil and gas fields in the North Sea. And again, it works! 

The future of Europe is up to you, sitting in this room. There is no saviour or trick. Join protests, boycotts, and resistance movements. When you go home, turn off Netflix and imagine how Europe could look if it led with values, if our countries chose to put our planet, and our collective well-being first. Imagine it for yourself, for those you love. And now, stop imagining and let’s make it happen!