EU chief Michel backs Macron view that bloc is 'mortal'

BRUSSELS

EU chief Charles Michel on Monday backed French President Emmanuel Macron's assessment that the European bloc is "mortal" and could "die" if it doesn't face up to the threats descending on it.

"Any democratic project, any democratic model, by nature, is mortal," Michel told a group of journalists in Brussels.

"But let's be clear," he added, "when Emmanuel Macron said it or when I give you this answer, this is not a pessimistic impression."

"I am optimistic," he said. "We have the strength, we have the tools" to handle the challenges, he said.

The comments by Michel, the head of the European Council representing the EU's 27 member countries, came after Macron last Thursday declared: "Our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die."

"It can die and this depends only on our choices," Macron said in a wide-ranging speech at the Sorbonne University in Paris.

Referring to Europe's struggle to build defence independence as it supports Ukraine against Russia's invasion, and industrial competition with the United States and China, Macron said Europe is "not armed against the risks we face" in a world where the "rules of the game have changed".

Both Macron and Michel held forth just over a month before the European Union holds elections to choose a new European Parliament.

The vote will in turn will influence who gets the bloc's top jobs — including the one currently held by Michel — and help determine the union's policies in coming years.

Asked about the European Union expanding eastwards, to take in countries such as Ukraine and ones in the Balkans, Michel stood by his call that "we must be ready by 2030".

"What is the alternative? If the idea is to procrastinate for decades to come, it means that we give a message to China, to Russia, that this is a playground for them in our direct neighbourhood."

Michel gave his interview to mark the 20-year anniversary of the EU's last expansion, in 2004, when it took in 10 countries.

The EU in December decided to open adhesion negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, and gave candidate status to Georgia, which earlier Bosnia had obtained.

Four countries in the Western Balkans — North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania — are officially candidate countries but their path currently remains blocked.