ANKARA

Europe must be ready to face challenges and make sacrifices to take charge of its own security, the French foreign minister said on Saturday.

To confront the serious threats looming over the French and European regions, the continent must acquire "the means to defend itself," Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

The minister admitted that this requires “efforts that we have lost the habit to make.”

He stressed that Europe tries to express the fact that if it does not want the front line to approach in the future, then it “will have to deploy” much bigger efforts than it has so far.

“We must prepare because we will have to make difficult choices, complicated decisions, and even sacrifices that we had not expected until now if we want to ensure this security,” Barrot said.

The minister recalled that Europe had lived for decades in a certain “form of recklessness” regarding its own security that was “in a way, implicitly outsourced” to its “American partners,” its “dependence on technological matters,” as well as the energy prices and climate change.

It is time to act now that Europe is in the quest for ways to recover its “strategic autonomy” after finding a consensus on the issue, Barrot added.

“Discussions have already started, as it is our future and the European continent’s security that is at stake,” he stated and recalled that President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen presented the roadmap for competitiveness two weeks ago.

Barrot further said the new US administration, which entered office “three, maybe three-and-a-half weeks ago, is still forming its opinion” on the crisis in Ukraine.