'Europe could die': France's Macron urges leaders to scale up EU defences

French President Emmanuel Macron has urged Europe to rise up to the challenges of a changed world, warning that "our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die".

During a keynote speech at the Sorbonne University on Thursday, Macron appealed for stronger, more integrated European defences.

He said the continent must not become a vassal of the United States, as he outlined his vision for a more assertive European Union on the global stage.

"[Europe] can die and this depends only on our choices," Macron said, warning that Europe was "not armed against the risks we face" in a world where the rules have changed.

"Over the next decade ... the risk is immense of [Europe] being weakened or even relegated," he those attending the event, which was billed as the president's vision for Europe's future. 

Macron said Europe needed to emerge from a being "strategic minority" that had left it over-dependent on Russia for energy, and on the United States for security.

He described Russia's behaviour after its invasion of Ukraine as "uninhibited", warning that it was no longer clear where Moscow's limits lie.

'Existential threat'

The French head of state stressed that the sine qua non for European security was "that Russia does not win the war of aggression in Ukraine".

Warning that Europe faced an existential threat from Russian aggression, Macron called on the continent to adopt a "credible" defence strategy less dependent on the United States, adding Europe could not be "a vassal" of the United States.

He also sounded the alarm on what he described as disrespect of global trade rules by both Russia and China, calling on the European Union to revise its trade policy.

Macron also called for a "revision" of EU trade policy to defend European interests, accusing both China and the United States of no longer respecting the rules of global commerce. 

He returned to the same themes of his Sorbonne speech in September 2017, months after taking office. Seven years on, however, the world has been turned upside down by Brexit, Covid-19 and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Macron said he would ask European partners for proposals over the coming weeks, and added that Europe also needed to build up its own cyberdefence and cybersecurity capacities.

Meawnhile preference should be given to European suppliers in the purchase of military equipment. Macron backed the idea of a European loan to finance this effort.

'Manifesto' on future Europe

Following Brexit and the departure from power of German chancellor Angela Merkel, the 46-year-old French president is often seen by commentators as Europe's number one leader.

But his party is facing embarrassment in June's European elections, ranking well behind the far-right in opinion polls and even risking coming third behind the Socialists.

The head of the governing party's list for the elections – the little-known Valerie Hayer – is failing to make an impact in the polls, especially in the face of the high-profile 28-year-old Jordan Bardella leading the far-right National Rally and Raphael Glucksmann emerging as a new star on the left.

Macron made no reference to the EU elections in his speech, although analysts say he is clearly seeking to wade into the campaign – with his speech reading as a manifesto for the continent's future.