French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that Europe faces possible death if it does not take bold action to tackle US and Chinese protectionism, amid serious geopolitical threats from authoritarian regimes, Politico reported.
In a 108-minute speech delivered at the Sorbonne, where seven years ago the then leader-elect made his first address on his vision for Europe, Macron repeatedly reiterated that “the rules of the game have changed” on several fronts, including geopolitics, economics and trade and culture, writes Euronews.
Where does the Old Continent go wrong according to Paris?
The European continent does not invest enough in innovation, fails to protect its industry and strengthen its military and defense capabilities, the French president said, BTA reported.
“Europe is not immortal, it can die. It depends only on our choice,” Macron said in his long-awaited speech, which echoed his landmark speech delivered there months after the start of his first term in 2017. “And that choice must be done now.”
“Over the next decade, the risk of being weakened, even relegated, is huge,” he told an audience of officials, journalists and politicians, pointing to changing geopolitics and emboldened authoritarian regimes.
“The era of basing our production in China, delegating our defense to the US and receiving energy from Russia is over. The rules of the game have changed,” Macron said. The French president accused both the US and China of breaking the rules of world trade by massively subsidizing their economies.
“As strong as our alliance with America is, we are not a priority for them,” he said. “They have two priorities: themselves – rightly enough – and China.”
According to him, in recent years, Europe has made great strides towards its unity and autonomy in the face of the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine, but “the awakening is too slow”. The French president has called for a much more aggressive trade policy and much greater public investment in a number of critical areas.
At the same time, Macron was less specific on the crucial question of how Europe will be able to finance its transition to becoming what he called a “European source of influence”. He reiterated his support for taking on new joint debt, similar to the one the EU had during the pandemic, and proposed increasing the EU’s own resources with revenues from a carbon tax or financial transaction tax.
Macron’s proposals
The French president made a number of new proposals on defense, the economy and trade that he said could get Europe back on track.
Macron said the EU should aim to become a “world leader” by 2030 with “special funding strategies” in five strategic areas: artificial intelligence, quantum information, space, biotechnology and new energies.
He called for a “growth target or even a decarbonisation target” to be added to the European Central Bank’s missions. “We cannot have a monetary policy whose sole purpose is to [контрол на] inflation,” he said.
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Yesterday, Macron stressed that Europe “must show that it is not a vassal of the United States and that it knows how to talk to all the other regions of the world,” France24 pointed out.
The French leader said he would ask European partners for proposals in the coming months, adding that Europe also needs its own cyber defense and cyber security capabilities.
Macron said European suppliers should be given priority in the purchase of military equipment and supported the idea of a European loan to finance the effort. He also called for an “overhaul” of EU trade policy to protect European interests, accusing both China and the US of no longer following the rules of global trade.
“It cannot work if we are the only ones in the world who follow the trade rules – as they were written 15 years ago – if the Chinese and the Americans no longer follow them by subsidizing critical sectors.” Therefore, the French president called on the EU to systematically resort to the “tools of fair competition”.
To meet Europe’s huge new defense needs, the French president called on Europeans to build a “European defense initiative” that “could include a European anti-missile shield” – a perennial bone of contention between France and Germany.
Macron has also called for “European preferences” in the purchase of military equipment, arguing that too much EU money is being spent on non-European manufacturers.
This is not the same person
In his speech at the Sorbonne, the French president sought to return to the spirit of his first speech on Europe as newly elected president in 2017, which was initially met with lukewarm reception in several European capitals but was later largely upheld from geopolitical events, notes “Politico”.
France’s quest for greater European strategic autonomy and sovereignty is already supported not only by the European Commission, but also by other EU countries.
After an hour and a half speech, Macron’s conclusion that he remains “optimistic” about Europe, however, could not divert attention from the fact that France and European partners are being approached by a French president with very weakened positions, Politico points out.
Macron in 2024 is a very different figure to the one he spoke in 2017. Since then, the French president has lost his absolute majority in parliament and is struggling to pass laws at home. The country’s reputation abroad has been damaged by headline-grabbing protests over pension reform and recent fiscal woes, including higher-than-expected deficit figures.
Macron’s speech was also intended to boost the faltering election campaign of his Revival party, led by Valerie Ayet, which trails Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Assembly by more than 10 points. The French president did not mention the campaign, but took aim at “nationalists” who no longer advocate leaving the EU, but simply destroying it from within.
In the face of rising populism, “the risk is that everyone becomes more timid” for fear of fueling nationalism even more. “But the answer is not timidity, but boldness.”
Towards the end of his speech, the French president reached philosophical reflections on the future of the continent. “We can even ask ourselves what is a nation? What does Europe want to do?”
“This is a decisive moment, a turning point. Our Europe could die.”
The domestic stakes that dictated the tone of Macron’s speech were high: the National Assembly said it would call for parliament to be dissolved if Macron’s Revival party and its allies suffered a crushing defeat, France24 reported.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament vote also comes with the National Assembly’s Marine Le Pen feeling her best chance of winning France’s 2027 presidential election, when Macron will be ineligible to run for the Elysee Palace again. .
