Once again, Europe's leaders, meeting in Council on 14 and 15 December, face decisions of historic importance.
Europe is expected to keep the flag of human rights flying high. On 10 December we celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948.
Contrary to what dictators and autocrats would have us believe through propaganda, interference and violence, there are no "Western human rights" or acceptable political systems on the planet other than respect for the integrity of the human person, to which all individuals on every continent aspire.
Let there be no mistake: across the world we are witnessing a veritable war for values and a model of society, between law and force, between violence and respect for human dignity.
Russia's violations of international rules and treaties have unleashed violence and warmongering everywhere, and brought together an "axis of evil" whose primary aim is to challenge human rights in the name of a supposed challenge to Western domination.
In the face of Russian aggression, to lower our guard would be to authorise the return of war everywhere. Russia is a totalitarian state, imprisoning its citizens as it has always done throughout its bloody history, and already illegally and partially occupying three European states, Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine.
The largest state in the world has only ever wanted to expand its territory, and to do so it has demonstrated the purest imperialism.
Europeans must make it clear that this brutal policy of fait accompli is no longer acceptable, that they will never accept it and that they will support Ukraine until the aggression fails. Their security is at stake, as is the message they want to send to the world.
Peace or war in Europe depends on the outcome of this conflict, and wars of conquest have been banned from the international scene. They must be countered by all means.
Some may be surprised that the European Union is offering Ukraine and Moldova the prospect of membership, while these countries have embarked on a long and as yet incomplete road towards our political and economic standards.
But this is first and foremost a request from the citizens of these countries, their free and democratic choice, and not a plot cooked up by who knows who.
Europe must rise to the challenge. In the absence of a foreign policy at its borders, it has only the prospect of enlargement to respond to the demands of peoples prepared to die for the European flag. Its moral and political duty is to open its arms to these Eastern Europeans who no longer want the barbaric domination of their large neighbour, from which they have suffered so much.
In these times of renewed violence, it is up to our leaders not to waver in their affirmation of our values, which cannot accommodate the slightest weakness or any slackening. They are universal and deserve, if necessary, the utmost commitment and, of course, courage.
