French president Emmanuel Macron has urged Europe to rise up to the challenges of a changed world, warning that "our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die", reports RFI.
During a keynote speech at the Sorbonne University on Thursday, Macron appealed for stronger, more integrated European defences.
He said the continent must not become a vassal of the United States, as he outlined his vision for a more assertive European Union on the global stage.
"[Europe] can die and this depends only on our choices," Macron said, warning that Europe was "not armed against the risks we face" in a world where the rules have changed.
"Over the next decade ... the risk is immense of [Europe] being weakened or even relegated," he those attending the event, which was billed as the president's vision for Europe's future.
Macron said Europe needed to emerge from a being "strategic minority" that had left it over-dependent on Russia for energy, and on the United States for security.
He described Russia's behaviour after its invasion of Ukraine as "uninhibited", warning that it was no longer clear where Moscow's limits lie.