Mr Le Maire, Russia's war against Ukraine has now lasted five weeks.

There is no end in sight and the economic outlook has deteriorated.

Do we need to prepare for a recession?

Niklas Zaboji

Economic correspondent in Paris

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I do not think so.

We are experiencing an energy shock resulting from the strong economic recovery in 2021 and the war in Ukraine.

This shock requires a strong and coordinated response from all EU countries.

It will affect growth in Europe, but will not necessarily lead to a recession.

How exactly is the war affecting growth in Europe?

That's very difficult to say.

Everything depends on how long the war will last and whether the situation on the battlefield will escalate.

We are making every effort to work towards de-escalation and an agreement between Russia and Ukraine, as this is the only way out of this conflict.

Are you doing enough for it?

Europe still buys a lot of Russian gas.

This is an important source of income for Putin.

Are you in favor of an EU embargo on Russian gas?

I think the EU has made it very clear: all options are on the table.

The Member States have already imposed very tough and very effective sanctions.

They hurt the Russian state and the Russian authorities and lead to a recession and a fall in the ruble in Russia.

Further steps also depend on the development of the situation on site.

With a view to the devastated Mariupol: What else does Putin have to do for the EU to take further sanctions steps?

We should not underestimate the power of the sanctions that have already been decided.

It is the strongest sanctions package that the EU has ever imposed on a country.

But there are still lessons to be learned from this crisis.

That would be?

The first is to become independent of Russian gas and oil and build the EU's total energy independence over the next few decades.

That means we need to diversify our supply.

That requires us to work on joint gas purchases, which is what the European Commission is doing at the moment to enable gas price control.

This in turn requires a fundamental restructuring of the European electricity market so that the electricity price is not systematically linked to the gas price and driven up.

What is still to be done?

The energy transition must be accelerated, that is, the expansion of renewable energies and, in France, of our nuclear power plants.

And we must force the reorganization of the value chains that we started before the war.

Globalization will become regionalized.

We already produce our own electric car batteries in Europe.

We need to consider reorganizing all strategic value chains to be more independent from foreign powers.

Germany wants to stop buying gas from Russia by 2024.

Would France, which consumes less of it, be able to stop sourcing earlier?

All these decisions must be taken at European level.

What made the sanctions so strong was the unity of the 27 Europeans.

We must maintain this unity, including on gas and oil issues.

France and other EU countries have announced aid programs for households and businesses, but not as much as in the EU "recovery fund" totaling 750 billion euros.

Do we need more help?