Macron to Talk ‘Stronger Europe’ and Back Ukraine to Boost Plummeting Clout Before EU Elections

The French president's aides earlier claimed he would outline a roadmap for Europe in his upcoming Sorbonne speech, which will come as his Renaissance Party trails well behind the hard-right Rassemblement National of Marine Le Pen.

Emmanuel Macron is due to give his thoughts on "a stronger Europe" and confirm his support for Ukraine during his upcoming speech at Paris’ Sorbonne University.

Thursday’s speech is billed by Macron's advisers as France's contribution to the EU's strategic agenda for the next five years and comes as he faces challenges regarding his campaign for the European Parliament elections in early June.

It likewise follows the French president’s efforts to gauge backing for a plan to install former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi – known for his pro-Ukrainian position – in a new job as European Commission president.

Draghi has previously said that Kiev's defeat would be "fatal" for the European Union and its values and has regularly promoted arms supplies to Ukraine.

Macron earlier sat down with experts at the presidential palace to discuss his alleged "ideological victory" of the creation of European defense architecture, as well as further Ukraine aid. Some experts, however, urged the French president to avoid offering bold rhetoric and focus instead on making concrete proposals, Bloomberg News cited unnamed sources as saying.

"It pains me to say it but there’s no such thing as a real European defense today, and we’ve been downgrading our ambitions now for 25 years," Sven Biscop, a political scientist at the Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations think tank, told Bloomberg.

After all these years "you start to wonder, does France really want it?" according to Biscop.

A few weeks ago, Macron reiterated his position in favor of the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine. "We’re not in that situation today," he said in an interview on French national television TF1 and France 2, but added that "all these options are possible."

The 46-year­-old’s previous remarks regarding the potential scenario of dispatching NATO forces to Ukraine irked France’s allies, including the US and Germany, which publicly opposed the idea.

In a separate development, the French president earlier threw his support behind a plan by the Czech Republic to deliver hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to Kiev from countries outside the EU, scrapping previous unwillingness to support non-EU made ammunition and military equipment.

On European defense, Macron pointed out in a speech at the Swedish Defense Academy in January that the future security architecture of the continent, including arms control agreements covering European territory, could no longer be settled simply by the US and Russia, and that Europe has a right to determine its own future.

He also pointed to "a decisive and testing moment for Europe" when it comes to the Ukraine aid, which Moscow has repeatedly warned would only lead to the prolongation of the conflict.

In his first radio interview since becoming president in May 2017, Macron insisted that "We [Europe] have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States." According to him, "We will not protect Europeans unless we decide to have a true European army."

The call was supported by then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel but criticized by then-US President Donald Trump, with some reportedly rejecting the idea as "illusory," "counterproductive," or just "nonsense."