French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday called on Europe to face the challenges of a changing world and warned that “our Europe today is mortal and may die”.
“It can die and it depends only on our choices,” Macron said, warning that Europe “is not armed against the risks we face” in a world where “the rules of the game have changed.”
“In the next decade (..) there is a huge risk that (Europe) could be weakened,” Macron said in a speech at the Sorbonne University in Paris. This speech was presented as the president’s vision for the future of Europe.
Macron called for Europe to break out of a “strategic minority” that has made it too dependent on Russia for energy and the US for security.
The French president described Russia’s actions after its renewed invasion of Ukraine as reckless and said it was no longer clear where Moscow’s “borders” were. He emphasized that “Russia does not win the war of aggression in Ukraine” as a necessary condition for European security.
“We ourselves must build this strategic concept of reliable European defense,” Macron said, adding that Europe cannot be a “vassal” of the United States.
He announced that he will ask European partners to submit proposals in the coming months, and added that Europe also needs its own capabilities in the field of cyber defense and cyber security.
Macron has expressed the view that European suppliers should be preferred in the purchase of military equipment and supported the idea of a European loan to finance the effort.
