In the future, we should not depend on who is president of the USA, here we have to determine our own destiny, said the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, in an interview with the European Newsroom - a platform for the cooperation of European news agencies. among which is BTA.
In his words, the US is interested in a strong partner in the face of the EU, so that together they can fight authoritarian regimes around the world. Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama were right to ask European allies to spend two percent of their GDP on defense, Michel commented. According to him, it is necessary for the Europeans to expand military production, since for now they rely on supplies mainly from abroad.
Michel defended arms supplies to Kiev and noted that he was involved in securing the first quantities within days of the Russian invasion two years ago. He pointed out that before the invasion of Russian forces, he tried unsuccessfully to dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin from taking such a step.
In his words, the EU should speed up its enlargement, because this would increase European influence. If we want stability in the EU, it is in our interest, he said. Michel pointed out that the most difficult issue in this area is the disputes between the accession candidates and between some of them and some of the EU countries. According to him, decisions on the enlargement of the EU must be taken unanimously, as before, because otherwise there will be division.
There are political forces that use migration to undermine the European project, commented Michel. In 2016, it was impossible to have reasonable conversations about migration, there were insults and mistrust, chaos. In a few years, we managed to restore trust, new legislation was adopted, he noted.
It is important not to lose the support of the European citizens, to explain to them the actions taken - the support for Ukraine, why the enlargement should be accelerated and why we should improve the European defense. We need to interact more with the rest of the world. The European Council is the guardian of EU unity, and unity is impossible without trust, Michel summed up.
He said he would not be giving advice to his successor, Antonio Costa, who takes over the presidency of EU heads of state and government meetings from December. Michel clarified that he will say after the upcoming transmission of the baton how he sees his own future.