EU needs to project its power assertively: Ursula

BRUSSELS
The ‌EU must be prepared to project its power more assertively as it can no longer rely on a “rules-based” system against threats and must determine if its institutions and systems help or hinder its credibility, European Commission President Ursula von der ‌Leyen said on Monday.
“We ‌will always defend ‌and uphold the rules-based system that we helped to build with our allies, but we can no longer rely on it as the only way to defend our interests or assume its rules will ‌shelter us ‌from the complex threats that ‌we face,” von der Leyen said ‌at a conference for EU ambassadors.
“We urgently need to reflect on whether our doctrine, our institutions and ‌our decision making – all designed in a postwar world of stability and multilateralism – have kept pace with the speed of change around us. Whether the system that we built – with all of its well-intentioned attempts at consensus and compromise – is more a help or a hindrance to our credibility as a geopolitical actor,” she added.
The public prosecutor’s office in southwestern Switzerland’s Wallis canton, where the upmarket ski resort of Crans-Montana is located, declined to provide further details.However, a source close to the case confirmed to media that Nicolas Feraud, mayor of the Crans-Montana municipality, is among those under suspicion, as reported by Swiss media.
The source said a former municipal councillor in charge of security, a former fire safety officer and his deputy, and a current member of the public safety team, had also been placed under criminal investigation.The move widens the scope of the investigation into the tragedy, which took place in the early hours of January 1 at Le Constellation, a bar in the town.
The bar’s owners, French couple Jacques and Jessica Moretti, are facing charges of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence. Crans-Montana’s current head of public safety and a former fire safety officer in the town are also under criminal investigation.
Wallis public prosecutors are tasked with determining the exact circumstances of the fire, whether safety regulations were complied with and who was responsible for what.Public prosecutors believe the fire started when champagne bottles with sparklers attached were raised too close to the bar’s basement ceiling, igniting the sound insulation foam.
The municipality triggered outrage on January 6 when it revealed that no annual safety check had been carried out at the bar since 2019.
The five current and former municipal officials now under criminal investigation, as well as Jacques Moretti, are to be questioned by the public prosecutor’s office between April 7 and 15, another source close to the case told. At the end of February, 58 survivors were still in hospitals and rehabilitation clinics in Switzerland and abroad.