RT-Engels: 08-11-2024,
If the bloc remains a ‘herbivore’, it will be devoured by the ‘carnivores’ on the world stage, the French president has said
The EU in its current state is a ‘herbivore’ surrounded by “carnivores,” and must become bolder and less dependent on the US and China, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.
The president made the remarks on Thursday while addressing EU leaders at the fifth European Political Community summit in Budapest, Hungary. Macron reiterated his longstanding message that the bloc should play a more assertive role in global affairs.
”For me, it’s simple. The world is made up of herbivores and carnivores. If we decide to remain herbivores, then the carnivores will win and we will be a market for them,” Macron said. He cautioned, however, against becoming too “aggressive.”
“I think, at the very least, we should choose to become omnivores. I don’t want to be aggressive, just that we know how to defend ourselves on all these subjects.”
The French president urged the EU to lower its dependency on major foreign actors, including the US and China. Delegating economic development and its geopolitics to third parties has ultimately turned out to be “not the best idea,” he said.
“We [in Europe] think that we should delegate our geopolitics to the United States of America, that we should delegate our growth debt to our Chinese clients, that we should delegate our technological innovation to the American hyper-scalers,” Macron stated.