The EU at a crisis summit in Versailles to assert itself in the face of war
The heads of state and government of the EU will try Thursday and Friday in Versailles to lay the foundations of a more sovereign Europe after the shock of the Russian invasion in Ukraine which exposed its weaknesses. The war started by Vladimir Putin has highlighted the lack of European military capabilities, the 27 member states having greatly reduced their budgets since the end of the cold war. It also highlighted the extreme dependence of the EU on gas imported from Russia which limits its ability to act against Moscow. Even if it has adopted an unprecedented package of sanctions, Europe continues to finance Russia through its energy purchases, which it is unable to do without in the very short term.
This dependence also threatens its economy, which must consolidate after having already suffered the historic shock of the Covid-19 pandemic. "This summit is that of the European surge, of European sovereignty", underlines one at the Elysée. President Emmanuel Macron, campaigning for his re-election, and who holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, sees in the current crisis the confirmation of the theses he has been developing for several years.
Ukraine: outrage after the bombing of a children's hospital
Barbaric", "immoral", "war crime": the shelling of a pediatric hospital by Russian forces in the besieged city of Mariupol provoked outrage from Ukrainian authorities and Westerners, as the Russian army closed in Thursday in kyiv, according to the Ukrainian general staff.This attack, which injured 17, came on the eve of discussions, Thursday in Turkey, between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers, their first face-to-face since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine two weeks ago.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who condemned a "war crime", shared videos showing the destruction - after an air raid - of the establishment, which housed a maternity hospital and a pediatric hospital, in Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov (southeast). Interiors of buildings can be seen blown away, debris, sheets of paper and shards of glass littering the ground. The White House for its part denounced a "barbaric" use of force against civilians, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the bombing "immoral". "There are no children" among the injured and "no dead", according to a report provided by the local authorities.
IN SHORT
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