A Defence Plan for Europe

 President of France Emmanuel Macron addressing British Parliament on 8th July, 2025

A Defence Plan for Europe

Deepak Razdan

Friday, 11 July, 2025

Russia’s war against Ukraine and the United States’ threats of high trade tariffs along with its uncertain policies are making Europe lose its sleep.

At every Summit, European leaders are concluding plans to meet challenges to European sovereignty and way of life.

An agenda for Europe’s survival was presented by French President Emmanuel Macron during his State visit to the United Kingdom (8-10 July) at the invitation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

Europe needs to rediscover itself, he said. It has to defend its democratic models and protect international order, without dependencies and without following an algorithm laid down by others, he said.

Mr Macron addressed both Houses of British Parliament together in the Palace of Westminster on 8th July. He told the British MPs and government that the UK might have left the European Union (EU); it had not drifted away from Europe.

The French President reminded them the UK and France are Europe’s two nuclear powers and they are committed to defence of Ukraine and can defend Europe also.

Building bridges with the UK, Mr Macron thanked its Prime Minister Keir Starmer for being the first UK PM in 80 years since Sir Winston Churchill to attend the Armistice Day in Paris last November.

The French leader recalled that the French shall never forget the sacrifices made by the British people to protect Europe and the world during the two world wars.

UK’s then Prime Minister Churchill was one of the visionaries who had the foresight to help forge a strong transatlantic alliance and to come up with a peaceful European order in which he deeply believed, Mr Macron recalled. Things were not the same since then and Europe faced many problems now, he said.

The French President summed up: “He (Churchill) passed the same vision on to us of a world order based on law and justice, and respect for territory and integrity, an order that is today being attacked on a daily basis, as we witness direct attacks on our democracies, the return to war on our Continent, the resurgence of imperial impulses and the flouting of international rules by destabilising powers who are attempting to divide up the world to their advantage.”

As permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, deeply committed to multilateralism, he said, the UK and France must once again show to the world that “our alliance can make all the difference.”

“Clearly, we have to work together in order to defend an efficient multilateralism and to protect the international order as we did after the Second World War,” he said.

The two countries have to work together, first, in supporting Ukraine, which has been illegally attacked, by ensuring European support and coordinating with the Americans to create necessary conditions for robust and lasting peace, Mr Macron said.

He said “every time Putin’s forces advance in Ukraine, the threat moves closer to us all. We will never accept might is right. And this is why we decided to launch last February the Coalition of the Willing, and this coalition was just the signal that Europeans will never abandon Ukraine, never.”

The French leader said “whatever decisions elsewhere could be, we will fight till the last minute in order to get the ceasefire, in order to start negotiations to build robust and sustainable peace. Because this is our security and our principles together which are at stake in Ukraine.” Mr Macron laid out clearly what Ukraine meant to Europe and how Europe had to respond.

At a joint news conference with him on 10th July, the UK Prime Minister agreed with him and said “the security of the British people starts in Ukraine.” He said “We have just co-chaired the meeting of the Coalition of the Willing including representatives from the United States for the first time.”    

Amid upheavals, the alliance between France and the UK has not faltered, it has become stronger in the past few years, the French President said.

On defence and security, he said, “our treaty showed that we are willing to cooperate on most sensitive subjects regarding our sovereignty.” The treaty has provided a reliable system of defence cooperation between the two countries for 15 years.

“Our two countries, the only European nuclear weapon States, the leading armed forces of the continent, together accounting for 40 per cent of European military wages, would fully shoulder responsibility when it comes to European security,” the French President declared.

“We are faced with new threats, with aggressive nuclear powers and … sometimes hesitating alliances and the return of a major conflict on our continent, our summit today is important,” he said. Mr Macron was confident the UK and France could meet the threats to Europe.

He said “Our two countries have special responsibility for the security of the Continent and it is time to articulate it. Not only will our two countries save themselves by their own exertions, but also save Europe by their example and solidarity.”

Mr Macron said the NATO members’ resolve to earmark 3.5 per cent of their GDPs for core defence expenditure is not “just piling money but increasing our cooperation all together, reducing our dependencies, and building a strong European pillar in the NATO.”

He said 2008 was the last time a French President spoke in the UK Parliament. Since then Europe has changed. In 2016, UK decided to leave the EU, “a decision we respect though it was deeply regrettable.”

Mr Macron said he is the first head of French State to make a State visit to the UK after that. “I welcome the fact that on the 19th May we were able to define a pragmatic roadmap between EU and the UK on defence, energy, climate and other issues,” he said.

“But just as leaving the EU did not mean the UK left Europe, addressing challenges faced by all of Europe cannot be left to the EU alone, what is at stake in Europe today is our ability to shoulder the responsibility to defend Europe ourselves to a greater extent,” Mr Macron said, seeking UK’s involvement in European defence, without depending on others like the US.

The two countries must avoid excessive dependencies on China and the US, though they can’t be put together, he said.

Mr Macron said “Let us be realistic. If the UK and France do not work together to build a solid value chain, to reduce our dependencies in these critical areas and if we still depend on China and US, we have a clear view of our future and the future of our children.”

“What is at stake in Europe is the defence of democratic models from foreign interference, information manipulation, domination of minds by negative emotions, and addictions to social media,” he said.

“This is the same type of risk of being amenable to algorithm designed in the US or China. This is being amenable to interferences and misinformation coming from Russia,” he said.

“The strength of our democracies depends on our capacity to create new regulations to protect our children and our democracies and democratic debate, relationship with science and truth, otherwise our future will be decided by those who decide the algorithm,” he said.

Mr Macron said “Even though it is not part of the European Union, the United Kingdom cannot stay on the sidelines, because defence and security, competitiveness, democracy, the very core of our identity, are connected across Europe as a continent.”

Going with France, UK Prime Minister Starmer announced “plans for a multi-nation force for Ukraine headquartered in Paris so that we are ready to support a peace deal when it comes. We are rallying more support for Ukraine right now to defend their people and force Putin to the table.”

He said “Now as Europe’s only nuclear powers and as leaders in NATO, we play a vital role in preserving peace and security on the Continent. Today we updated the historic Lancaster House treaty to protect our people and our way of work.”

This is a major modernisation, he said. “We are overhauling our combined joint expeditionary force to make it five times larger, 50,000 troops-strong to be able to act across the Continent,” he said.  

The UK Prime Minister disclosed how serious the two countries were about a defence plan for Europe. He said the two had “signed the Northwood Declaration, confirming for the first time we are coordinating our independent nuclear deterrent.”

“From today our adversaries will know that any extreme threat to this Continent would prompt response from our two nations," he said.