Europe must escape from its self-imposed naivety or face the risk of dying. That was the stark warning at the heart of a major speech on the EU by French President Emmanuel Macron Thursday in Paris.

Over two hours in the historic auditorium of Sorbonne university, the French president said Europe must react fast if it is to survive in a changing world.

“We need to be lucid, and recognise that our Europe is mortal. It can die. It all depends on the choices we make, and those choices need to be made now,” he said.

Mr Macron’s speech was billed as the follow-up to his landmark 2017 Sorbonne speech when, not long after taking office, he first urged the European Union to move towards greater self-sufficiency in defence and the economy.

Coming just a few weeks before European elections, the speech was also being seen as a bid to reinvigorate the lacklustre campaign of his Renaissance party.

Currently the president’s supporters trail a long way behind the hard right of Marine Le Pen.

In a pessimistic appraisal of Europe’s lack of preparedness for the “change of paradigm” now facing the world, Mr Macron said hostility from Russia, lack of interest from the US, and competition from China risked leaving the EU “marginalised and relegated”.

“The era when the EU bought its energy and fertiliser from Russia, outsourced its production to China and depended on the US for its security – that era is over,” he said.

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