For the past few weeks, embattled French President Emmanuel Macron has been positioning himself as Ukraine’s foremost defender on the international stage.
In a press conference at the White House 9 days ago, he took the unexpected step of interrupting Trump and correcting his (false) claim that European countries have been merely loaning money to Ukraine. Since then, he has floated the idea of sending French troops to enforce a peace deal, while stating forcefully that Europe must “continue to help Ukrainians resist” because peace “cannot mean Ukraine’s capitulation or collapse”.
That all sounds very noble and Churchillian. Yet it flies in the face of what France has actually done to help Ukraine, which is… not very much.
The Kiel Institute provides detailed data on aid to Ukraine via its ‘Ukraine Support Tracker’. This database reveals that, since the start of the war, France has given Ukraine 0.18% of GDP in bilateral aid. (That’s 0.18% of 2021 GDP, not 0.18% of GDP in each year of the war.) How does this compare to Ukraine’s other allies? Well, it’s less than the % given by Estonia, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Croatia, the US, the UK, Czechia, Canada, Germany, Romania, Belgium, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Japan, Austria and Iceland.
In fact, both Estonia and Denmark have given a remarkable 12 times more bilateral aid than France (as a % of GDP). Even Germany, which received a lot of stick at one point over its lacklustre support for Ukraine, has given 2.4 times more. Now, France has also given aid to Ukraine via the EU institutions, but so has every other EU country.
France’s rather paltry contributions are particularly noteworthy given that France has the most powerful military in the EU. According to the Global Firepower Index, the French military is the seventh most powerful in the world. The next highest EU country, Italy, is ranked tenth.
Let’s suppose that France had given the same % of GDP as Denmark, that is, 2.17%. French GDP in 2021 was €2.75 trillion. 2.17% of that figure is €60 billion. Subtract the amount France actually gave (€5 billion) and you get €55 billion. That’s a huge figure, amounting to 73% of the Russian defence budget in 2022. I imagine Ukraine could have found some use for an extra €55 billion.
Not only has France given far less aid than most of Ukraine’s allies; it’s also been importing billions of euros of Russian energy. According to a report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, France imported €3.5 billion in Russian energy last year. Which means that it actually sent more money to Russia in the form of energy payments than it sent to Ukraine in the form of aid (the €5 billion France sent to Ukraine came over three years).
Note that I’m not arguing France necessarily should be giving substantially more aid to Ukraine. As regular readers will know, I’m sceptical of the policy Western countries have pursued. My point is that Macron is engaging in cheap talk.
The French President has described Russia as an “existential threat”. Yet his actions belie this. Would you buy billions of euros of energy from a country you considered an “existential threat”? If Macron really wants to help Ukraine’s armed forces, he should stop posturing and give them what they say they need. And other leaders should start criticising his lack of action.
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No-one seemed to care when they had chiropodists in the original list of people who say it can’t be anything other than man-made global warming. The description was ‘settled science’. It isn’t even science.
You could say that they Put their Foot in it by Toe ing the line !
Hey hey..!!
I’ve known for decades that man made climate change is BS.
Apart from the obvious, you just know that whenever they say “all scientists agree” it can’t possibly be true. Scientists never agree on anything. Proper scientists, that is. The ones who understand that science is a culture of doubt, not a culture of faith.
Stating there is no climate emergency is like saying water is wet, everyone except the watermelons is aware the climate is much like it always has been.
Impossible!
The Consensus™️ – 96%, no wait 97% of scientists agree global warming is ‘real’, er..but stopped in 1996 – drat!… correction climate change is ‘real’ and all Man’s fault.
It would appear the age of reason has come to a close. It was the clergy that for centuries stifled our scientific progress during the dark ages, now in an ironical twist of fate it is the scientists who’ve created the religion.
And that religion is known as –
“The Science.”
We need to avoid confusion with real science.
Just like we need to avoid confusion of Duchess of Sussex’s. “My truth” with real truth.
Just how is that people like me who are not professional ‘scientists’ or ‘academics’ but who are soundly educated and who have a professional background that requires an understanding of climate and weather knew the whole climate thing was a Great Lie, fraud and scam from the very start. We were just voices in the wilderness.
This article appears to rubbish the claims made in your article – which is correct?
https://insideclimatenews.org/todaysclimate/experts-debunk-viral-post-claiming-1100-scientists-say-theres-no-climate-emergency/?utm_source=InsideClimate+News&utm_campaign=294aed9976-&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-294aed9976-329054845