Emmanuel Macron warned EU army will NEVER replace NATO's defence of Europe

Egils Levits urged Emmanuel Macron to concentrate on improving the trans-Atlantic security instead of attempting to create a Brussels-led army. The French President has ramped-up his calls for an EU defence force while being hypercritical of Nato. In recent interviews, he accused the 70-year-old security pact of suffering from “brain death” and of failing to shake-off its Cold War cobwebs.

While Mr Levits doesn’t disagree with a number of the criticisms levelled against Nato, he urged caution over ignoring the organisation’s importance.

He said Mr Macron’s comments might be “to draw attention of certain aspects” of Nato, which “could and should be improved”.

The Latvian, however, maintains that the 29-member security pact is “still the strongest military alliance” in the world and any EU defence ambitions should “not be an alternative to Nato” and should not lead to a “parallel structure”.

But Mr Macron’s comments have had some cut through with Nato chiefs, who could form a “group of experts” to evaluate the alliance’s future.

The body, first proposed by German foreign minister Heiko Maas, and welcomed by Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg, would aim to publish a report by next November.

They will wait until next US presidency is decided and the politics of the trans-Atlantic alliance are more certain.

But the plans attracted criticism from senior Germany politicians who believe Nato is trying to paper over cracks caused by Mr Macron.

Norbert Rottgen, chairman of the influential German foreign affairs committee, said: “The French President declares Nato brain-dead and now we have a working group where alumni will say what the future is.

“The politicians responsible have to know that themselves: what is the future of Nato, what do we need it for after the end of the Cold War?”

Omis Nouripour, foreign policy spokesman for the German Greens, added: “Too often, expert committees simply become shunting yards for responsibility.”

And Mr Macron has refused to ease off on his attacks on Nato despite wide-scale condemnation by world leaders.

Speaking at the Paris peace conference, he said: “I think we need truth. Prudery or hypocrisy does not work in these times.

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In public, Germany’s Angela Merkel has gone easy on her French counterpart in public.

But privately, the Chancellor has lashed Mr Macron for his disruptive “truth telling”.

She said: “Over and over again I have to glue together the cups you broke just so we can sit together against and have a cup of tea,” according to a New York Times report.

source: express.co.uk