Emmanuel Macron has criticised migration policies that involve sending people to African countries as "a betrayal of our [European] values", just days after the UK government passed its Rwanda deportation bill.
The French president made the remarks in a wide-ranging speech on Thursday aimed at warning Europe against overdependence on other countries for security and trade.
Turning to migration, he said he did not believe in "this model that some people want to put in place, which means that you go and look for a third country, for example in Africa, and send our immigrants there".
He added: "This is a betrayal of our values and will lead us down the path of new dependencies on third countries."
Macron did not mention Rishi Sunak's Rwanda plan directly, but did not hold back in giving his views on Brexit. Britain's departure from the EU was "an explosion whose negative effects, from what I can tell, have meant that today nobody dares to propose exits, neither from the Europe, nor from the euro".
He also described the British as "natural allies" of France and the EU, saying defence treaties, such as the Lancaster House agreements signed in 2010 with the UK, left "a solid foundation for partnerships" that had not been affected by Brexit.
Delivered in a neoclassical amphitheatre at the Sorbonne University in Paris, the speech focused heavily on defence, as Macron urged European leaders to respond to the "paradigm shift" of the invasion of Ukraine by a nuclear-armed Russia.
"The basic condition for our security is for Russia not to win," he said. "Europe needs to be able to protect what is dear to it alongside its allies … Do we need to have an anti-missile shield or anti-missile system? Maybe."
"When we have a neighbouring country that has become aggressive and seems to have no limits and that has ballistic missiles [and has] been innovating a lot when it comes to the technology and the range of these missiles, we see that we absolutely have to set up this strategic concept of credible defence."
Macron called for cooperation between European armies, "regional European defence frameworks" in the Mediterranean and Arctic, as well as a European military academy.
Europe could not be "a vassal" of the US and had to "show that it knows how to talk to all the other regions of the world", he added.
The speech was billed as a follow-up to one Macron gave at the Sorbonne in 2017, only months after he was first elected French president on a staunchly pro-European centrist platform. Then a new EU leader, Macron said Europe had become "too slow, too weak and too ineffective" and argued for a more "sovereign Europe", including a joint defence budget, common border controls and common industrial programmes to support green technology.
Now speaking as one of Europe's most powerful decision-makers, but whose influence could wane with the declining poll ratings of his centrist group, Macron argued that the "European sovereignty agenda" laid out in 2017 had been widely implemented, but threats to Europe's place in the world had become more acute. "Europe is mortal, it can die and this only depends on our choices," he said.
French officials framed the speech as Macron's contribution to the debate on the future of Europe, ahead of European elections in June and the appointment of new leaders at the helm of the EU institutions.
Referring to the US-China rivalry, Iran's nuclear ambitions and Russia's aggression, Macron spoke of an "acceleration in the world" to which the EU was failing to respond adequately. "Europe is in a situation of being cornered on all its borders and we are reacting too slowly," Macron said.
After the speech, Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, tweeted: "France and Germany both want Europe to remain strong. Your speech offers good ideas for achieving this, @EmmanuelMacron. Together we will make progress in the EU: politically and economically. For a self-assured and innovative EU. Vive l'Europe!"
His quick response contrasts with Angela Merkel's silence following Macron's previous Sorbonne speech, which was widely seen as showing a lack of enthusiasm for his ideas.
The speech covered familiar French themes, including the importance of nuclear power in Europe's low-carbon energy mix, a less "naive" trade policy to ensure European producers were not undercut, as well as boosting production of leading-edge technology, such as AI, and of arms inside Europe.
Criticising past decisions, Macron said: "We had delegated our energy to Russia; our security, for several of our European partners, depended on the [United] States; and trade was given over to China. And now we have to get things back."
Additional reporting by Deborah Cole in Berlin
### "Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence", George Washington. ###
Rwanda needs migrants because of the genocide, says James Cleverly
"For a country of a fairly modest population, it lost a very significant number of its people.
"So Rwanda – I may be a bit clunky with my phraseology – Rwanda is slightly underpopulated and there is definitely capacity for the individuals who are being relocated to Rwanda to be financially much more better off than they would be in their country of origin but also for Rwanda as a nation to be economically much more better off," he said.
"It's a genuine mutual benefit. The people they will be accepting into their society will help their economy grow.
"We see this as being a three-way benefit. It helps the UK manage a real challenge with regards to criminally facilitated illegal immigration, it helps the individuals who are seeking a safe and prosperous life to have a safe and prosperous life, and it helps Rwanda to grow its economy and be the modern society that they are aspiring to become."
Rwanda is "slightly underpopulated" because of the genocide it suffered 20 years ago and its economy will benefit from the migrants that are due to be sent from Britain, the Home Secretary has said.
James Cleverly is on a two-day visit to Italy and is due to travel on Wednesday to the island of Lampedusa, which has received hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants who cross in boats from the coast of North Africa.
The Government has the green light to start flying migrants to the central African country after the Safety of Rwanda Bill was passed by Parliament.
At an event in Rome, Mr Cleverly was asked why the Rwandan government had agreed to take asylum seekers from the UK.
He said that apart from the "transfer of funds" – the millions of pounds that Britain will give to Rwanda – the country's economy was in need of migrant labour because of the brutal genocide it endured in 1994, when members of the Tutsi ethnic group were massacred by Hutu militias.
It is estimated that more than 800,000 people – mostly Tutsi but also moderate Hutu – were murdered during the genocide.
"For a country of a fairly modest population, it lost a very significant number of its people.
"So Rwanda – I may be a bit clunky with my phraseology – Rwanda is slightly underpopulated and there is definitely capacity for the individuals who are being relocated to Rwanda to be financially much more better off than they would be in their country of origin but also for Rwanda as a nation to be economically much more better off," he said.
"It's a genuine mutual benefit. The people they will be accepting into their society will help their economy grow.
"We see this as being a three-way benefit. It helps the UK manage a real challenge with regards to criminally facilitated illegal immigration, it helps the individuals who are seeking a safe and prosperous life to have a safe and prosperous life, and it helps Rwanda to grow its economy and be the modern society that they are aspiring to become."
It came as the Archbishop of Canterbury accused MPs of "unjustly maligning" churches for helping refugees.
In a joint statement with leaders of the Roman Catholic, Methodist, Baptist and United Reformed Churches, the Most Rev Justin Welby said they continued to have "deep misgivings" about the Rwanda plan and the precedent it set in how the UK treated the most vulnerable.
They also hit back at attacks on the Churches for "deliberately facilitating false asylum claims" in the wake of the disclosure that the Clapham chemical attacker was granted the right to remain in the UK after clergy supported his Christian conversion claims.
Most Rev Justin Welby and other religious leaders continue to have 'deep misgivings' about the Rwanda Bill Credit: ANDREW MATTHEWS/PA
Pointing the finger at former Home Office ministers, MPs and other commentators, they said: "We are disappointed that the kindness and support offered by churches and charities to the people at the heart of this debate – those fleeing war, persecution and violence trying to find a place of safety – has been unjustly maligned by some for political reasons."
Rishi Sunak has been threatened with legal action by two civil service unions over the Rwanda scheme.
The FDA, a union representing senior civil servants, is expected to convene its executive committee next Monday.
The union is likely to launch a judicial review the following day, arguing that ministers' new power to disregard interim ECHR rulings would mean telling civil servants to break international law.
Paul O'Connor, the senior national officer for the Public and Commercial Services Union, said it was considering legal action over the Rwanda policy. "It's our members who will have to put this unethical, inhumane and impractical policy into practice, which is why we've opposed this from day one and shall continue to do so by keeping our options open in considering a legal challenge," he said.
Michael O'Flaherty, the Council of Europe's commissioner for Human Rights, who oversees the ECHR, said Mr Sunak should rethink the Rwanda scheme because of the risk it posed to human rights and rule of law.
"The adoption of the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill by the UK Parliament raises major issues about the human rights of asylum seekers and the rule of law more generally," he said.
"The UK Government should refrain from removing people under the Rwanda policy and reverse the Bill's effective infringement of judicial independence."
### "Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence", George Washington. ###
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