Europe risks dying and faces big decisions – Macron
French President Emmanuel Macron said Europe must escape from its self-imposed naivety or face the risk of dying.
In a speech on the EU, he said Europe must react fast to survive in a changing world.
“We need to be lucid, and recognise that our Europe is mortal. It can die. It all depends on the choices we make, and those choices need to be made now,” he said.
His speech was billed as the follow-up to his landmark 2017 Sorbonne speech when he urged the EU to move towards greater self-sufficiency in defence and the economy.
Macron’s speech comes just a few weeks before European elections and has been seen as a bid to reinvigorate the lacklustre campaign of his Renaissance party.
Currently, the president’s supporters trail a long way behind the hard right of Marine Le Pen.
In a pessimistic appraisal of Europe’s lack of preparedness for the “change of paradigm” now facing the world, Macron said hostility from Russia, lack of interest from the US, and competition from China risked leaving the EU “marginalised and relegated”.