Brazil and France launch diesel-powered submarine
French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian Lula da Silva will launch a diesel-powered submarine built in Brazil with French technology at the Itaguai shipyard outside Rio de Janeiro.
This is the third submarine delivered by Paris to Brasilia. It is part of a Prosub program launched by former French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Da Silva in 2008.
Macron is the first French president to visit Brazil in 11 years. The officials are meeting this week to revive the relationship between the countries after years of frictions with former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Macron and Da Silva also announced Tuesday a plan to invest 1 billion euros in the Amazon. In a joint statement, they said the money will be spread over the next four years to protect the rainforest.
It will be a collaboration of state-run Brazilian banks and France's investment agency. Private resources will also be welcomed, Brazil and France said.
Macron started his three-day visit to Brazil in the Amazon city of Belem, where he met his Brazilian counterpart. The French president then took a boat to the Combu island to meet with Indigenous leaders.
Both Macron and Lula attended a protest by Greenpeace Brazil with banners that read “No oil in the Amazon.” The Brazilian government has contemplated allowing the tapping of oil in a region close to the Para state, where Belem lies.
Lula said during a speech that Macron's visit is part of a global effort to beef up rainforest protections.
“We want to convince those who have already deforested that they need to contribute in an important way to countries that still have their forests to keep them standing,” Lula said.
The French president decorated Indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire with the prestigious Legion of Honour medal for efforts at conserving the rainforest.
“You were in Europe and I promised to come here to your forest and be with your people in this forest that is coveted,” Macron told the Indigenous leader. “President Lula and I have a common cause for one of our friends in this land that belongs to you.”
forces. As it has always been the case.
So far I do not see the EPP of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, for example, joining any extreme right allies. This will not happen. Kyriakos and Jean-Claude Juncker are the ones who wanted Orbán out of the EPP, I may remind you. So I see the EPP central at the heart of the new web of political alliances in the European Parliament.
I see that on certain subjects we can work, as we did for the migration pact - a large chunk of the ECR, Giorgia Meloni and the Italian MEPs of Fratelli d'Italia overwhelmingly backed our pact, together with the liberals, the centre-right and the socialists. So that's how I see the centre of gravity in the new parliament.
Star power
Sasha Vakulina, Euronews: Do you consider doing more now in terms of motivating the young Europeans to come to the polls and vote in June, specifically those for whom that's going to be the very first election?
Margaritis Schinas, EU Commission Vice-President: Absolutely, I mean, look what happened during the Brexit referendum. We had so many inspiring pro-European figures admired in the UK, but the ‘Yes’ vote failed to mobilise them. And it was a mistake that we paid dearly. Let's not make the same mistake in the European elections.
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There are so many leaders out there in sports, in culture, in arts and philosophy and creative industries. We are the envy of the world when it comes to football. In all areas, we excel.
Most of these people are committed Europeans, they work across borders, and they make their reputation across borders. What's wrong with having these people talk to young Europeans and tell them to go to vote?
That's, I think, something that governments should also embrace. I'm doing it from Brussels. I don't think that commissioners are the right people to talk to young people, to tell them to vote. Probably it will create the opposite effect.
But I take the opportunity of the launch of the new Euronews now to make this appeal to those who lead by example to the role models. These are the people whom we need.