Emmanuel Macron defended the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Sweden on Tuesday, in the face of the difficulties of French farmers, but asked for “rules” to face non-European competition. The anger of French farmers and other European countries was evident on the first day of the French president’s state visit to Sweden, largely devoted to the future of European defense and support for Ukraine.
Macron calls on Europe to make “courageous” decisions to “accelerate” its aid to Ukraine
Europe must take “fair and courageous” decisions, even “innovative”, in the coming months to “accelerate” and amplify its military support for Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron declared on Tuesday during his visit to Sweden . “We must be ready to act, defend and support Ukraine whatever happens”, particularly during the US presidential election in November, he insisted in a speech at the Karlberg Military Academy, believing that the “cost” of a Russian victory would be “too high for us”.
“Without PAC, many of our farmers would not be able to survive”
“It would be easy to blame everything on Europe,” said Emmanuel Macron during a press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, noting that “without a Common Agricultural Policy, our farmers will not would have no income and would not be able to live for many of them.” The CAP organizes competition and regulates agricultural aid at European level.
The Head of State justified the refusal to conclude a trade agreement between the European Union and the Latin American countries of Mercosur, desired by countries like Germany, by the existence of “rules which are not homogeneous with ours.” The French president also asked for “clear measures” regarding imports of chicken and cereals from Ukraine. He is due to meet Thursday with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the sidelines of a European summit.
Emmanuel Macron, who spoke shortly before the general policy speech of the new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, also hoped that distributors “do not extract all the added value” in negotiations with farmers. The European purchasing centers set up by certain distributors to obtain even lower prices constitute a “circumvention of French law”, which he wants to discuss at the European level, he added.
A “renewed strategic partnership” between France and Sweden
The French president and Ulf Kristersson have concluded a “renewed strategic partnership”, with defense being at the heart of this cooperation, at a time when Sweden is close to joining NATO. In this context, Emmanuel Macron called on Europeans to support Ukraine “in the long term” and to compensate for any possible decline in American aid, a few months before the very indecisive presidential election in the United States.
“We must organize ourselves in such a way that if the United States were to make the sovereign choice to stop this aid or reduce it, it should not have an impact on the ground,” he said during of the press conference.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Hungary is the latest EU country to obstruct the payment of 50 billion euros in European aid to Ukraine, which will be the focus of the European summit on Thursday in Brussels. Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago shook up the situation in Sweden: long neutral on a military level, Stockholm decided to join the Atlantic Alliance.
Hungary also remains the last obstacle to this accession, which Ulf Kristersson plans to speak about on Thursday on the sidelines of the European Council, with his Hungarian counterpart France and Sweden share “a desire precisely to bring together, to produce together, to help together the Ukraine to have a Europe that protects itself better,” he added.
Sweden has “the same vision of sovereignty as France”
Emmanuel Macron, who will visit Ukraine in February, will address defense issues during a speech Tuesday afternoon to young Swedish officers from the Karlberg Military Academy. Sweden “is a country which has the same vision of sovereignty as France” with “the desire to develop capabilities over a very broad spectrum, whether operational and industrial capabilities”, says an advisor to the French president, emphasizing a common approach to the need to enter into a “war economy”.
A sign of changing mentalities, the Swedish authorities caused an electric shock in January by declaring, through the commander-in-chief of the Swedish army Micael Bydén, that the Swedes “must prepare mentally for war”.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Sweden announced that it wanted to reach the milestone of 2% of GDP devoted to defense spending “as soon as possible”. The country can count on a solid defense industry and France and Sweden have in common the fact that they have independently developed a fighter plane, the Rafale on the French side, the Gripen on the Swedish side.
France and Sweden will sign a declaration of intent on anti-aircraft defense and air surveillance systems, while the companies Saab and MBDA are expected to conclude “in the coming days a contract on the development of the Akeron anti-tank missile”, according to Paris.