The French President stated: “Europe is surrounded and armed at the bottom. We need a common fund for defense investments. European borders serve our common good”.
“Europe is surrounded and underarmed against the challenges posed by unscrupulous powers such as China and Russia.” This was said by French President Emmanuel Macron in his speech on Europe at the Sorbonne University. “The rules of the game have changed and the era of Europe dictating defense to the United States is over. In the next decade, there is a huge danger that it will weaken, because we are living in an unprecedented moment of accelerating transformation. We have to be aware that our Europe can die, and it depends solely on the decisions we have to make now, because our security is at stake.”
Missile shield and enhanced weapons production
“A necessary condition for our security is that Russia does not win its war against Europe. We are facing an unscrupulous power that has attacked a country in Europe. Now not only the security of Ukraine is at stake, but also that of Europe.” Macron came up with the idea of an anti-missile defense shield, but added that Europe needs to create a common defense initiative that the continent can use to defend itself. Then he added: “France and the French military are ready to lead European defense, thanks also to nuclear weapons”.
Europe must arm itself, namely with a European military industry: “We must give preference to Europe when purchasing military equipment”recalling that Europe today buys most of its armaments from other countries such as the United States and South Korea.
Europe is getting poorer
At the end of his speech, the French president also touched on the sad fact that the old continent is on the verge of impoverishment.
According to a Eurostat report last year, 95.3 million people in the EU (22% of the population) were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, i.e. lived in a household where at least one of the three risks of poverty and social exclusion existed. The highest values were reported from Romania (34%), Bulgaria (32%), Greece and Spain (both 26%). The lowest was registered in the Czech Republic (12%), Slovenia (13%) and Poland (16%).
The risk of poverty and social exclusion does not strictly depend on the level of household income; lack of work, low work intensity, employment status and a range of other socio-economic characteristics can have an impact in addition to income. Eurostat uses three separate indicators to determine the number of people in this situation, which include people in at least one of the following situations: people at risk of poverty, people suffering from severe material and social deprivation, and people (under 65) who live in a household in which the adults worked 20% or less of their total full-time potential in the previous twelve months.
