EU’s Costa co-launches Partners for Multilateralism to reform UN system

European Council President António Costa joined Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Kenyan President William Ruto and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in a Financial Times article announcing Partners for Multilateralism (P4M). Costa will co-host a related summit in New York this week.

The main messages are:

The world is more economically connected than ever (record trade, billions online) but geopolitics is moving the other way, with the highest number of state-based conflicts since 1946 and record military spending. No country, however powerful, can manage climate, AI, pandemics or supply-chain shocks alone. Multilateralism is therefore a practical necessity, not idealism.

P4M is not a new exclusive bloc or extra bureaucracy. It is a flexible, open framework for countries from different regions that share UN Charter principles (sovereign equality, territorial integrity, peaceful settlement of disputes, no threat or use of force, human rights). Its purpose is to build coalitions for reform.

The initiative will push to make the UN and other institutions more representative, legitimate, effective and trusted; strengthen links between regional organisations; improve global economic governance; and develop common approaches to AI, climate, health security and digital transformation. The goal is to renew the existing system, not replace it.

Costa and the co-authors call on other leaders to choose cooperation over fragmentation, law over power, and shared responsibility over division.

Mark Carney has spent 2026 arguing that middle powers must organise themselves or be squeezed by great-power rivalry. At Davos in January he warned that countries caught between Washington and Beijing risk ending up “on the menu” unless they sit at the table together, and he has since pushed “variable geometry” partnerships rather than a single new bloc. The Partners for Multilateralism launch with Brazil, Kenya and the EU is the most visible attempt so far to turn that idea into a practical coalition for UN reform and issue-by-issue cooperation on climate, AI and economic governance. Carney presents it as a way for countries that are neither superpowers nor small states to keep rules-based multilateralism alive when the largest players become more transactional.

Carney’s activism has prompted some to label the P4M initiative a union of middle powers. Unlike Brazil, Canada or Kenya, the EU does not describe itself as a middle power.

Carney (Canada), Lula (Brazil), Costa (EU), and Ruta (Kenya) have together penned a piece in the FT announcing a new middle power partnership. pic.twitter.com/DK7K5G8Bo5
— James Rosen-Birch ⚖️🕊️ (@provisionalidea) September 20, 2026

World leaders gather in New York this week for the high-level segment of the 81st UN General Assembly, whose theme is “Restoring trust, managing transformation: a United Nations that delivers for all.” The general debate opens on 22 September. Costa will address the Assembly on behalf of the EU on 24 September and co-host the Partners for Multilateralism summit.

With the FT

Caption: President of the European Council, Antonio Costa arrives for a meeting with the Prime Minister of Portugal at Sao Bento Palace in Lisbon, Portugal, 10 September 2026. Costa is visiting several EU member states to meet national leaders as part of his ‘Tour des Capitales’ for discussions that focus on the Union’s forthcoming long-term budget – and lay the groundwork for the next European Council meetings and international summits. EPA/MIGUEL A. LOPES