PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday renewed his calls for Europe to assume more responsibility for its own defense, saying it had for “too long avoided bearing the burden of its own security.”
Speaking alongside NATO chief Mark Rutte, who was visiting Paris in the wake of Donald Trump’s reelection as US President, Macron said he was “delighted” that other nations were falling in line with his longstanding call to collectively invest more in defense.
“It’s the agenda of European strategic autonomy that will allow us to have more money, to build capacity and autonomy for the Europeans, and an ability to cooperate with our non-European allies as part of the alliance,” Macron said.
Trump has questioned Washington’s commitment to defend NATO allies and spoken of slashing support to Ukraine or striking a deal with Russia to end its years-long invasion.
His return to the White House is a renewed spur to Europeans — long used to conventional and nuclear protection from the US military — to reexamine their own defense.
“Nothing should be decided about Ukraine without the Ukrainians, nor about Europe without the Europeans,” Macron said, adding that “building up homegrown military capacity would be “a long-term effort.”
He joined Rutte in calling North Korean troops’ appearance alongside Russian soldiers “a serious escalation” in the Ukraine conflict that widened the threat to the Pacific, increasingly the Americans’ priority theater.
“Russia, working together with North Korea, Iran and China, is not only threatening Europe, it threatens peace and security, yes here in Europe, but also in the Indo-Pacific and North America,” Rutte said.
“We must stand together — Europe, North America and our global partners... We have to keep our trans-atlantic alliance strong,” he added.
Rutte pointed to backing Russia has received from Iran, North Korea and China.
“We must do more than just keep Ukraine in the fight. We need to raise the cost for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and his enabling and authoritarian friends by providing Ukraine with the support it needs to change the trajectory of the conflict,” he told reporters.
Europe has ‘avoided bearing burden of its own security’: Macron
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Europe has ‘avoided bearing burden of its own security’: Macron
- Macron said he was “delighted” that other nations were falling in line with his longstanding call to collectively invest more in defense
- “It’s the agenda of European strategic autonomy that will allow us to have more money, to build capacity and autonomy for the Europeans“
EU to suspend 93 billion euro retaliatory trade package against US for 6 months
- “With the removal of the tariff threat by the US we can now return to the important business,” Gill said
- The Commission will soon make a proposal “to roll over our suspended countermeasures”
BRUSSELS: The European Commission said on Friday it would propose suspending for another six months an EU package of retaliatory trade measures against the US worth 93 billion euros ($109.19 billion) that would otherwise kick in on February 7.
The package, prepared in the first half of last year when the European Union was negotiating a trade deal with the United States, was put on hold for six months when Brussels and Washington agreed on a joint statement on trade in August 2025.
US President Donald Trump’s threat last week to impose new tariffs on eight European countries over Washington’s push to acquire Greenland had made the retaliatory package a handy tool for the EU to use had Trump followed through on his threat.
“With the removal of the tariff threat by the US we can now return to the important business of implementing the joint EU-US statement,” Commission spokesman Olof Gill said.
The Commission will soon make a proposal “to roll over our suspended countermeasures, which are set to expire on February 7,” Gill said, adding the measures would be suspended for a further six months.
“Just to make absolutely clear — the measures would remain suspended, but if we need them at any point in the future, they can be unsuspended,” Gill said.
