Germany's likely next chancellor, a conservative, Friedrich Merz warned Europe should seek "independence" from the US as it grapples with the Trump administration's lack of support for Ukraine. France's Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron made very clear he believes Putin was "the aggressor" in Ukraine.

The Munich Security Conference may be over for another year, but the reverberations of the past few days are ricocheting across Europe as Ukraine faces a defining moment. The latest: French President Emmanuel Macron will host European leaders in Paris today for crisis talks as they scramble to respond to the fast-moving events of recent days.

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, greets Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz as he arrives for an informal meeting of leaders from key European Union nations and the United Kingdom at the

Vance’s shocking words — and the prospects of American disengagement — were so traumatic, they prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to cobble together an emergency summit of European leaders, where the participants promptly agreed on nothing .

Trump vindicated the French president on self-reliant defense. But with Putin looming, the hard work starts now for Europe.

To immediately free up budgetary leeway to finance his country's rearmament, the incoming chancellor plans to vote in a special €200 billion fund for the army. He hopes to reform the strict budgetary rules – the "debt brake" – enshrined in the Basic Law, with the support of the outgoing Bundestag.

Trump's rhetoric at the time sparked a major debate over the future of European security. Macron, who also took office in 2017, began to propose the formation of a "true European army" as an alternative to NATO and famously warned of the "brain death" of the alliance in 2019.

The winner of Germany's parliamentary elections has travelled to Paris to meet the French president for a working dinner on Wednesday. View on euronews

COLUMN. Since 2017, the French president has developed a clear and prescient vision for Europe's global role, allowing him to make a comeback after his calamitous decision to call early elections, writes Le Monde columnist Françoise Fressoz.

The meeting came as the US sided with Russia, North Korea and Israel to oppose a UN resolution condemning Russia.