With the leaders of the US, Russia and China all “against” it, Europe is presented with a “unique moment” in which it needs to “gain confidence” so as to be respected by others, French President Emmanuel Macron has told an Athens audience in a discussion on Europe.

“If we don’t believe in ourselves, there is no chance that the others will suddenly say we are super guys,” Macron said.

He was participating in a discussion, titled “Challenges for Europe: The Way Ahead,” alongside Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Kathimerini Executive Editor Alexis Papachelas moderated.

“We should not underestimate that this is a unique moment where a US president, a Russian president and a Chinese president are dead against the Europeans. This is the right moment for us. Wake up,” Macron said.

In a wide-ranging discussion, both leaders spoke in depth at how the European Union must develop its strategic capacity to ensure the prosperity and security of the 27-member bloc.

Noting that there was concern about the ability of the EU to react to “shifting geotectonic plates,” Mitsotakis said the EU needed to focus on enhancing its strategic economy, highlighting the Greek-French defense agreement in this regard.

“We need to take more ownership in defense, by spending more and more at scale,” he said.

The bloc also needed to strengthen its competitiveness, Mitsotakis said, noting the Draghi report presented a “diagnosis of the problems and opportunities for a united continent.”

He said now that there was a general consensus at EU level on what needed to be done, leaders needed to move to implement policies regarding the single market, the energy market and other key areas.

The prime minister said his priority for the EU in the next five years would be to see a “true energy union,” which would also include nuclear power.

Both leaders felt that the EU needed to “reestablish” a level playing field for EU companies to complete effectively with Chinese and American competitors. Overregulation, including at the national level, was hampering Europe’s competitiveness, they said, agreeing that European companies needed to enjoy “European preference.”

Macron said a capital market union would see European savings invested in European innovation and equity, to the benefit of its citizens, while Mitsotakis said creating the same legal basis for start-ups in the EU would see French and Greek entrepreneurs and experts return from the US to European companies.

When asked by Papachelas on how he deals with US President Donald Trump, Macron stated he takes “the leaders people give to us.”

“We are not here as leaders to make comments on tweets or behaviors. We are here to act and decide, and the unique strategy which makes sense for us, our country, our countries and our continent, is just to act, accelerate, clearly, to have more scale and speed, as I mentioned, in order to increase our independence,” he said.

“I really believe that this US approach will last … During his first mandate, a lot of European countries were just looking at Trump administration saying, ‘okay, it will finish. So let’s not change.’ Now a lot of colleagues are more lucid,” he said, adding that the “America first” policy in many ways predated Trump and would also outlive him.

Mitsotakis said the EU needed to take the mutual assistance clause in EU treaty more seriously, as Greece did in its recent support for Cyprus after it was attacked by missiles during the conflict in the Middle East.

Greece’s support for Cyprus was “a political statement that we don’t just rely on NATO,” he said.

To applause, the French president said France could be counted on should Greece ever face a revisionist threat from Turkey.

“We will be here. The French-Greek alliance – this is it,” he said.

Source: Ekathimerini.com