Blinken to address the state of war during a visit to Finland
France’s President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that a meeting of European leaders in Moldova showed Europe’s unity in supporting Ukraine and in resisting Russian aggression, but reiterated France’s position that full NATO membership for Ukraine was still premature.
Speaking at a press conference in Bulboaca, Moldova, which is only about 24 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, Mr Macron said the summit meeting was a “strong symbol” of how “we will not abandon any member of the European family”.
“It is a message of unity and of clear, unanimous support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people to lead the counter-offensive, obtain security guarantees and build lasting peace,” Macron said at the summit, which brought together heads of state and government from 47 countries and top officials of the European Union had gathered.
But he repeated his position from the day before, during a trip to Slovakiathat Western allies could offer Ukraine “tangible” security guarantees without going as far as full NATO membership, “which is not immediately accessible”.
Mr Macron also met President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on the sidelines of the summit for a one-on-one talk.
The meeting in Moldova was the second meeting of the European Political Community, or EPC – a group of more than 40 countries, including members of the European Union, but also countries not part of the bloc, such as Ukraine, Moldova, Turkey and Britain.
The idea for the group came from Mr Macron in the months following the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year. He wanted a somewhat informal but very symbolic meeting of a wide circle of leaders, to bring countries that are not part of the European Union closer to the European Union, to discuss important European issues such as energy policy or security.
On Thursday, Mr Macron said the summit had shown the “pertinence of this idea and the power of this format”.
“I see many colleagues who sometimes doubted that and are now convinced of it,” he added.
Mr Macron has insisted the group is a way to keep Europe united and a practical solution to engage non-EU countries in important debates about the future of the continent – not a substitute for Expansion of the EU into Eastern Europenor an indefinite waiting room for EU membership candidates.
Ukraine and Moldova both became an official EU candidate last yearwith the support of Mr Macron, though the process is long and uncertain. In keeping with the old French idea of a “multi-speed Europe”, Mr Macron also said that a unified approach to expansion had become impractical and that it was unwise to throw the doors of the bloc wide open without significantly improving his reforms. reform. internal rules.
But he signaled a shift in France’s reluctance to expansion, with Slovakia arguing on Wednesday that “the question is not whether to expand, nor when to do it. For me it should be as soon as possible – but how to do it.
“We function too slowly with 27 members,” he added from Moldova on Thursday. “No one can credibly say that we will function better with eight more.”