Justice & Law Quote by Xavier Espot Zamora

“Essential ally” is diplomatic code for “external anchor we don’t want to admit we need”. Xavier Espot Zamora’s praise of the Council of Europe isn’t just a thank-you note to Strasbourg; it’s an argument for legitimacy. Over thirty years, he suggests, modernization didn’t simply happen because domestic politics matured. It was guided, nudged, and at times constrained by a rules-based European framework that can absorb blame and confer credibility in equal measure.

The phrase “modernisation of our institutions and legislation” signals a very particular kind of progress: aligning courts, rights protections, and governance norms with European standards. For a small state, that alignment functions like currency. It reassures investors, neighbors, and citizens that power is bounded and procedures are predictable. The Council appears here less as a club and more as a compliance engine whose real product is trust.

Then comes the ideological tell: “balance between the rights and duties of citizens”. That pairing pushes back against a purely rights-maximizing rhetoric and anticipates critiques about sovereignty, judicial oversight, or “foreign” standards. Espot’s subtext is that democracy isn’t just claims against the state; it’s civic obligations that make those claims workable. It’s also a preemptive defense of reforms that may be unpopular but can be framed as responsible adulthood.

The closing triad, “advanced, responsible and sustainable democracy”, borrows the language of development and climate-era governance: progress with guardrails. In context, it reads as a pitch for continuity. The Council of Europe becomes the guarantor not only of rights, but of a political center that wants modernization without rupture.