LONDON, December 22. /TASS/. The erroneous economic and migration policies of European countries have led to cultural stagnation and discontent among the continent's population, US Vice President JD Vance said.

"I think their economic policies have produced very broad-based continental stagnation. Their immigration policies have caused a significant backlash from the native population. I think that Europe doesn’t have a very good sense of itself right now, and you see that reflected in various measures of economic and cultural stagnation," he said in an interview with the British portal UnHerd.

"We want it to be much more self-sufficient, much more self-reliant. And look, the reality is, America sprang out of European civilization. We are fundamentally descended from a lot of European ideas. That’s why we want a stronger Europe," the US vice president said, adding that "a lot of this is something I think the Europeans have to do themselves."

Vance paid special attention to the role of Christianity. "When I talk about America having some common culture, I think Christianity is very much at the heart of that. With the exception of [Thomas] Jefferson and a couple of others, most of our Founding Fathers were devout Christians," he said.

Earlier, Vance repeatedly criticized European countries for obstructing the settlement in Ukraine, moving away from Christian values, encouraging uncontrolled migration and suppressing dissent. His most notable speech was at the international security conference in Munich in February, where he criticized the EU for censorship, including the blocking of social networks. He stressed that in this form, Europe is useless for the United States, as it is afraid even of its own voters. Chairman of the conference Christoph Heusgen called the conference Europe's nightmare after Vance's speech.