“Europe does not have to choose between security and democracy. It never did and cannot afford to start now”. In his 2026 annual report, entitled “The New Democratic Pact for Europe in times of rupture”, Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset calls for a legal and democratic framework “that lasting European security can depend on, and for rebuilding people’s trust in institutions”. Berset presented the report to the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the 46 Council of Europe member states during their annual Committee of Ministers session in Chişinău on 15 May. In the report, Secretary General Berset warns that “as Europe rearms on a scale not seen since the Cold War, we should ask what we are really defending, and whether force alone will ever be enough. That is where Europe’s current security model falls short, and where democratic security must begin”. He highlights the damage being caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and other international crises. “Each unchallenged threat or use of force pushes the international legal order closer to the brink”. Foreign information manipulation and interference, alongside the erosion of trust in democratic systems, “undermine both the rule of law and social stability, jeopardising European democracies from within”, he argues. He also emphasises the need for “safeguards upholding human rights and democratic principles to keep pace with rapid technological change, particularly in digital technology and artificial intelligence”.