Reinhard Butikofer: BRICS development “means a massive challenge for the EU”

Senior MEP Reinhard Butikofer, foreign policy coordinator of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, says last week’s BRICS summit has “set historical facts.”

He was commenting on the BRICS summit in South Africa.

Under China’s leadership, a decision was made to admit another six countries as BRICS members in the coming year.

This will significantly increase the international weight of BRICS, even if there are relevant differences between the members.

The BRICS group of major emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – held its 15th heads of state and government summit in Johannesburg  between August 22 and Aug. 24.

The BRICS countries are often seen as a counterweight to the Western-led world but six new countries – Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – are set to join in January.

Butikofer, a German MEP, told this site: “The expansion will also change the character of BRICS. China’s dominance will increase and BRICS will become a clearly authoritarian oriented group.

“So far, according to The Economist’s Democracy Index, three of the five BRICS members have been classified as “flawed” democracies: South Africa, which ranks 45th (out of 167) in the 2023 Democracy Index; India (46th place) and Brazil (51st place). Argentina should be newly added (50th place).”

He added,”The authoritarian countries China (156th place) and Russia (146th place) will be joined by Egypt (131st place), Ethiopia (122nd place), the United Arab Emirates (133rd place), Saudi Arabia (150th place) and Iran (154th place). This undoubtedly cements the dominance of the authoritarian camp in BRICS.

“It would be wrong to assume that the BRICS group is homogeneous. At the 2022 UN General Assembly, five of the 11 countries condemned Russia´s Ukraine aggression, while four abstained. However, they appear united in an “anti-Western” stance. BRICS has always been non-Western; now the accent shifts to the confrontational.”

The highly respected veteran MEP said, “This BRICS development means a massive challenge for the EU. We don’t have many years to prove that Europe wants to be a credible, reliable, and fair partner for poor and developing countries. If that doesn’t succeed, BRICS might become the focal point for many of these countries.”

Read also: Reinhard Bütikofer says that China supplying weapons to Moscow “would be a slap in Europe’s face.”