French president says EU needs no outside advice

French President Francois Hollande delivers a speech during a meeting with leaders of international start-ups based in Paris during the "French Tech Ticket" conference in Paris, France, January 16, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

PARIS -- The European Union (EU) "does not need external advice to tell it what it has to do," French President Francois Hollande said Monday.

Hollande made the remarks in response to US President-elect Donald Trump's comments on topics such as the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in an interview with The Times of London and German newspaper Bild published Monday.

"Europe will always be ready to pursue trans-Atlantic cooperation, but it will base its decisions on its interests and values," Hollande said at a ceremony for outgoing US Ambassador to France Jane Hartley.

Hollande also said NATO "will be obsolete only when threats have also become obsolete."

In the interview, Trump said the future of the EU is "very tough" and a Brexit would not have happened if people had not been forced to take in refugees.

Trump also said NATO was "obsolete because it was not taking care of terror," and he complained that various members of the bloc were not paying their dues, which was "very unfair to the United States."