I can't get a dialling tone
rockjockcock
The EU also has a considerable role in defending the right to free expression globally. While it thinks of itself as weak, the EU has considerable leverage as the world's largest trading block that accounts for about a quarter of total global economic output. It is one of the world's largest "values block" with a collective commitment to the universal declaration of human rights, the international covenant on civil and political rights and perhaps more significantly, the European convention on human rights. Significantly too, Europe accounts for two of the five seats on the UN Security Council (Britain and France), so has a crucial place in the global security framework. All of this amounts to a lot of soft power that can and has been used effectively to protect free speech, but only where the member states act collectively.