As French President Emmanuel Macron pointed out at the last European Council under the French Presidency, “Europe in June 2022 is very different from Europe in January 2022.”

Different because the war waged by Russia against Ukraine within the European continent is a game changer. This unjustified, illegal, cruel war, in flagrant violation of international law, has been condemned by the Europeans, by our American and British allies and beyond by the international community as a whole.

The consequences of this war are the sole responsibility of the leadership of the Russian Federation.

Diplomatically, this great country, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, is thus isolated more than ever and the authoritarian drift also hits hard the Russian population itself victim of an unprecedented repression, leading with the war of aggression to the exclusion of the Russian Federation from the Council of Europe.

Militarily, the geopolitical landscape has changed profoundly and Russia’s neighbours have taken note of the threats weighing on their direct environment. NATO welcomed, at the end of June, at their request, Sweden and Finland, who will contribute significantly in return to the security of all Allies.

Economically, the war has clouded the global economic outlook, with food, fuel and energy prices rising sharply. In addition, the Russian blockade of Ukrainian grain export routes causes and aggravates food insecurity and malnutrition in the world. We must protect the most fragile among us and we must protect the most vulnerable populations abroad. Europe has taken initiatives in this direction. In order to guarantee food access for all, we have launched, in conjunction with our partners within the EU, the G7 and the African Union, the international Food & Agriculture Resilience Mission (FARM) initiative.

France thanks Malta for its contribution to making Europe stronger in this dangerous world

During its EU Presidency, France worked hard to provide a united and firm response to the Russian aggression against Ukraine, while continuing to work on the major projects for the future of our Europe, so that it can be more sovereign, greener and more human.

The EU has welcomed more than 7.6 million Ukrainian women and men, supported the Ukrainian army with the deployment of unprecedented military aid (€2 billion), supported the Ukrainian economy, with assistance of almost €2 billion and provided massive humanitarian aid, of €335 million, in addition to member states’ bilateral humanitarian aid of €1.28 billion.

We have also provided practical support to the Ukrainian authorities and international courts, including the International Criminal Court, to preserve evidence of war crimes. And we have granted Ukraine and Moldova the status of candidates for membership of the European Union.

We have adopted sanctions that have a massive impact on Russia and Belarus: six packages of sanctions against individuals involved in the aggression and against the financial, transport, defence and energy sectors. For the record, the sanctions do not target foodstuffs or fertilizers. European sanctions aim to stop the financing of the Kremlin war machine, since Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks peace only on one condition, the surrender of Ukraine. As President Macron and many other world leaders have said, this could not and this should not happen.

Europe is also different now because we have all realized that European sovereignty is not just a slogan, it is now an imperative. Together we have taken several fundamental steps: strengthening our defence capabilities, in particular our defence industrial base; adopting the strategic roadmap of the EU (the “strategic compass”); reducing sharply our dependence on Russian gas, oil and coal imports; and building a stronger economic base. We have set a European sovereignty agenda for food products, health products, critical raw materials or semiconductors.

We have made major progress on other issues crucial for our future: on migration with better control of our external borders, the reform of the functioning of the Schengen area and a better response to migratory flows into Europe; on the fight against global warming with the adoption of the Climate Package to reduce our emissions by 55 per cent by 2030 and the promotion of identical production standards for products manufactured in the EU and for imported products, via the introduction of mirror measures; in the digital field with the limitation of the distribution of illegal content and products online, with measures to end the economic dominance of large digital platforms and to promote consumers’ freedom of choice; and on social issues, by introducing a minimum wage for workers in Europe, for gender equality in the business world, with the adoption of the ‘women on board’ text.

A presidency is obviously a collective effort. We have been able to build on the achievements of the Slovenian presidency and we wish the Czech presidency every success.

Each of the member states of the European Union, large and small, played its full part. France thanks Malta for its contribution to making Europe stronger in this dangerous world. We also extend our warm congratulations for her brilliant election to the United Nations Security Council.

We will have the opportunity to continue to work together to promote the stability of a region that is essential to our common security, the Mediterranean, and more broadly to peace and security in the world. We will act with determination so that the humanist and responsible voice of Europe can be heard, so that multilateralism and the rule of law prevail over brute force and international disorder.