By Hanif Ghaffari

Europe is about to take a historical test

May 14, 2018 - 10:8

TEHRAN - Last Thursday, Immanuel Macron was in Aachen to receive this year’s Charlemagne prize from Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. As the name suggests, the prize isawarded for work done in the service of European unification.

It has been awarded annually since 1950 by the German city of Aachen to people who contributed to the unity of Europe. There Macron urged Europe to unite and exert a self-confident “European sovereignty” in the face of an increasingly complex world and unilateral American moves on issues such as the Iran nuclear deal and climate change.

"Let us not be weak, let us choose," Macron said as he received the prize… A new Europe must be built on solidarity and convergence, Macron said, and, for that purpose, "I believe in a stronger, more integrated Eurozone with its own budget that enables investment and convergence."

"Yes, I am ready to say that we need to undertake profound reforms and transformations in order to reduce public expenditure, which is the sole condition for moving forward in Europe," Macron stated.

Indirectly, Macron referred to the United States' President Donald Trump and emphasized on the importance of "refusing to let others decide for us".Addressing an audience that also included leaders from Lithuania, Bulgaria, Luxembourg and Ukraine, Macron urged Europe to defend the global multilateral order, for the sake of the continent’s sovereignty.

 "We made the choice to build peace and stability in the Middle East," he said. "Other powers, just as sovereign as us, have decided not to respect their own word," Macron added. "Should we renounce our own choice? ... We must choose, speak with everybody to succeed in building our own sovereignty which, in this region, will be a guarantee of stability."

Then Merkel, Pointing to the civil war in Syria, said that many of the global conflicts today were flaring on the doorstep of Europe. Merkel acknowledged that Europe "is still in its infancy" when it comes to having a common foreign policy, which will be "existentially necessary."

“And it is no longer the case that the United States of America will simply protect us… The time when one could simply count on the U.S. to protect us is over. Instead, Europe has to take its destiny into its own hands. That is our challenge for the future.”

Undoubtedly, the remarks of Emanuel Macron and Angela Merkel don't have the slightest consistency with the practical behavior of the President of France and the German Chancellor and their relations with the United States! Maybe it would have been more proper if the German and French authorities pointed out their role in the United States withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)! Last summer, Emanuel Macron officially promised U.S. President Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the occupying Regime of Quds to do his best to include Iran's missile defense capability in the JCPOA.

Moreover, Macron agreed with U.S. other conditions, namely the inspection of Iran's military sites, putting permanent restrictions on our country's nuclear activities (after 2015) and regional control of Iran. This is also true of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. During her last meeting with the President of the United States, Merkel announced that she would only conditionally accept the nuclear deal with Iran! It is conditional upon accepting all the demands of the President of the United States. This was while Merkel and other European leaders announced their full, absolute and comprehensive support in 2015, when the deal was signed between Iran and the members of the P5+1.

But certainly and In spite of all their pretensions, the international society is never going to believe the recent statements made by the French President and German Chancellor, and ignore Europe's measures to the advantage of the United States and its ally, Israel.

 Although the European citizens have been calling for independence from Washington for many years, and despite the fact that the European Union has been in control of the White House for many years now, European leaders do not really care about the demands of their people. Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, along with British Prime Minister Teresa May, are now the three main accusers of violations by the United States. Meanwhile, the German and French authorities' claims on their separation from the United States and their independent decision in the international system, is a mere pretension to please the public opinion of these countries.

It seems that a real change in Europe's macro- policies will take place only when its current leaders are replaced by other authorities who really want independence from the United States, and wish to have an independent role in the international system; something that may soon come true… .