The world is on te verge of a new Cold War if multilateralism fails, said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

He called on the EU to play a leading role in the struggle to preserve rule-based global order. Guterres described the EU as a pillar of multilateralism that was too big to fail, Reuters reported.

"If you want to avoid a new Cold War, if you want a real multilateral order, then we have to have a United States of Europe as a strong pillar of it," he said after being presented the medal in Aachen city hall's ornate Coronation Room.

According to him, Europe, the global order and the UN risk being undermined by growing nationalism and xenophobia at a time when unity is needed more than ever before to tackle problems such as climate change and migration.

“The bitter truth is that we have taken too many things for granted. Human rights has lost ground against the agenda of national sovereignty," he added. "The failure of Europe would inevitably be the failure of multilateralism and the failure of a world in which the rule of law can prevail."