If the President of the Republic recognized a “generous” European idea, he also warned of a continent which “had forgotten to protect its external borders.”
During his speech given this Thursday, April 25 at the Sorbonne, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron welcomed that Europe “has begun to clearly reaffirm the existence of its borders.”
“Europe is a generous idea based on the free movement of people and goods, and sometimes it had forgotten to protect its external borders. Not borders as watertight fortresses, but as a limit between an inside and an outside. there is no sovereignty if there are no borders,” he said.
“We must regain control of our borders fully, entirely and assume it,” the French president also said.
He spoke of the creation of a “political structure” which would make it possible to take, between “countries which share it”, “decisions” on “the subjects of immigration, the fight against organized crime, terrorism, the fight against drug trafficking or cybercrime.
“An essential achievement of recent years”
During this same speech, the President of the Republic underlined that “despite the divisions which had blocked our progress in this area for almost 10 years”, Europe managed, “during the French presidency”, to ” a first agreement on asylum and immigration.”
“It makes it possible for the first time to improve control of our borders by establishing compulsory registration and systematic screening procedures at our external borders to identify those who are eligible for international protection and those who will have to return to their country of origin. This is an essential achievement of recent years,” he pointed out.
“Rethinking” European geography
“France is a country of secondary movement,” he further clarified. “Immigration enters the European area through other borders and France more than others needs an effective policy because it begins at European borders and not French ones,” he said.
And Emmanuel Macron focuses on the way in which Europe has begun “to rethink (its) geography within the limits of (its) neighborhood.”
“Europe now sees itself as a coherent whole after Russian aggression by affirming that Ukraine and Moldova are part of our European family and have the vocation to join the Union when the time comes, like the Western Balkans,” said he insisted.
