President of France, Emmanuel Macron called for the establishment of a “more united, sovereign and democratic” Europe in the face of numerous geopolitical and economic challenges.
He made the comments during a speech at Paris’ Sorbonne University on Thursday.
“We need to be clear on the fact that our Europe is mortal, it can die,” Macron said.
According to him, the bloc’s survival “depends only on our choices”, warning that the rules of the game had changed and the EU wasn’t ready enough.
The French President also urged the European Union to assert itself as a united front in the face of rivalry from the United States and China.
Macron, a strong supporter of Brussels’ stated policy of achieving strategic autonomy, accused Washington and Beijing of deciding “to stop respecting the rules of trade,” citing the US Inflation Reduction Act.
According to him, such policies could impoverish Europe.
“Europe must show that it is never a vassal of the United States and that it also knows how to talk to all the other regions of the world,” he said.
France’s leader said the recent “relocalization” efforts had been “unprecedented” in Europe’s history, stressing that France had moved beyond its “industrial and technological naivety” and was “correcting” its trade policies while beginning to establish “technological sovereignty.”
In his calls for a preference to be given to European suppliers in the purchase of military equipment, Macron said Europe was being “encircled,” pointing to Russia’s war in Ukraine and Iran’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
“The principal danger for European security is the war in Ukraine, the sine qua non for our security is that Russia does not win this war of aggression,” he said.
However, Macron said the bloc’s economic regulations had become too complicated and called for a reduction of red tape on small and medium-sized businesses in Europe.