French President Emmanuel Macron warned on Monday of the “risk of weakening” Europe and the West in the current international context with the emergence of “new great powers”.
Speaking to the French ambassadors in Paris, Macron acknowledged that the international context has hardened and is “complicating”.
The new context “risks weakening the West and our Europe in particular”he said, quoted by the French agency AFP.
“There is a gradual demand for our international order, [na qual] the West had a dominant place and still has a dominant place,” he said.
According to Macron, the questions stem from the return of war, namely in Europe with the Russian offensive in Ukraine, and the emergence of a “policy of resentment” from Asia to Africa.
The politics of resentment feeds on “anti-colonialism, reinvented or fantasized,” and on “instrumentalized anti-Westernism,” he said.
“We have to be clear, without being too pessimistic,” Macron defended.
He also believed that “avoiding the division of the world” over the war in Ukraine should be avoided at a time when southern states refuse to condemn Russia for invading the neighboring country 18 months ago.
We must “avoid creating a narrative that consists of saying: this is your war as Europeans, it is none of our business,” he said.
Macron also defended that the European Union (EU) will need greater institutional integration and even “different speeds” to integrate new members without repeating what has already been done, i.e. “enlargement without integration”.
“I can testify that for a Europe of 27 it is quite complicated to make progress on essential issues,” Macron said at the annual meeting of French diplomacy, noting that “it will not be easier with 32 or 35 ”.
He stressed the need to think about greater integration of defense, climate, technology or economic policies, and believed that the EU will need to expand, namely to the Western Balkans, to be strong and more stable.
“We have to be brave enough to accept greater integration in certain policies, and maybe even different speeds in this Europe,” he declared.
The EU has granted candidate country status to seven countries: Albania, Moldova, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Kosovo are potential candidates, according to the European Commission.
The French president said the EU must have “a more realistic trade policy” and that this means “defending the European manufacturing base”, as other powers such as China and the United States have already done.
For example, the Spanish agency EFE found it unacceptable that China imposes a 25% tariff on European products in the automotive sector, while Chinese products enter the EU with a 10% tariff.
He added that in the name of “a brighter Europe”, France will continue to oppose the signing of trade agreements that allow the import of manufactured goods without respecting the health or climate standards imposed on European farmers and manufacturers.
Source: DN
