French President Emmanuel Macron urged Europe to respond to “the electroshock” triggered by the return of U.S. President Donald Trump to the White House with a new approach to defense and the economy.
“This is Europe’s moment to accelerate and execute,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times that was published on Friday. “It has no choice. It is running out of road,” he added.
The French president’s comments come as European officials are reeling as details of Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine emerged this week. The proposal rules out NATO membership for Ukraine and retaking all of the occupied territories in Ukraine. Trump has also announced that he is starting negotiations “immediately” with Russia after holding a phone call with President Vladimir Putin.
Macron warned that Ukraine must be part of the negotiations. He said that a “peace that is a capitulation” would be “bad news for everyone.”
The French president also cast doubts on whether Russia, whose military forces are making gains in the battlefield, wants to negotiate a peace deal.
“The only question at this stage is whether President Putin is genuinely, sustainably, and credibly willing to agree to a cease-fire on this basis. After that, it’s up to the Ukrainians to negotiate with Russia,” he said.
Macron, however, refrained from directly criticizing the Trump administration and said that the U.S. president had created “a window of opportunity” to bring the war to an end.
Macron also insisted that Europe needs to boost its defense industries in the face of a more uncertain world.
“We must also develop a fully integrated European defense, industrial and technological base,” Macron said. “This goes far beyond a simple debate about spending figures. If all we do is become even bigger clients of the U.S., then in 20 years, we still won’t have solved the question of European sovereignty.”
On the economy, the French president argued that Europe needs to abandon its fiscal and monetary framework, which he described as “obsolete.” In particular, the EU rule that member states need to keep deficits below 3 percent of gross domestic product needs changing, he argued.
Source: Politico