Modern Europe is facing a triple existential threat; a new paradigm is needed to counter it, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with the British weekly The Economist.
“It’s this triple existential risk for our Europe: a military and security risk; an economic risk for our prosperity; an existential risk of internal incoherence and disruption to the functioning of our democracies,” the French president said. “So these are the three risks that have accelerated in recent years, very strongly no doubt. Moreover, after the pandemic, we underestimated these tensions, even though Europe began to respond to them, but too timidly or sometimes a little too late,” he added, reports AFP.
According to Macron, “a new geopolitical, economic and societal paradigm for Europe” is needed to address these challenges. First of all, as the president believes, Europe must take care of its own security. In addition, it needs to ensure its strategic autonomy “in terms of energy, materials and rare resources, but also in terms of key skills and technologies.”
Among other things, this concerns the active participation of its companies in the development of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, where the United States and China may get a long-term advantage. Finally, Europe needs to address the vulnerabilities “created by social networks and the digitalization of our societies and the way democracy works,” he went on to say.
In reply to the question whether this will lead to a gradual death, or will it be a sudden death, Macron said: “Things can fall apart very quickly. In Europe and everywhere else, they are creating a rise in anger and resentment.”
