“Our Europe, right this moment, is mortal and it may die,” he mentioned. “It could die, and this relies solely on our selections.”
The speech, which lasted about two hours, was his try to set the agenda forward of European elections in June and form the European Union’s course for the subsequent 5 years.
It comes as Europe tries to maintain momentum on Ukraine support and mulls what the potential return of former president Donald Trump may imply for the continent. It additionally comes lower than every week earlier than he hosts Chinese language President Xi Jinping, who’s eager to peel the E.U. away from Washington.
Thursday’s speech was pitched because the sequel to a chat he delivered in the identical august setting in 2017 — and Macron couldn’t cease himself from making it one thing of an “I advised you so” second. When he first made his pitch for a extra strategic autonomy, many in Europe have been skeptical, he mentioned. That, like a lot, has modified.
Macron sketched out how the previous seven years have remodeled the continent and — a minimum of in his telling — affirmed his name for strategic autonomy.
In the course of the pandemic, the European Union labored collectively to purchase and ship vaccines, he mentioned. When Russian tanks rolled into Kyiv, Europe rallied to wean itself off Russian vitality, sanction Russia and surge help to Ukraine.
Europe must construct on this, he mentioned, making a union that’s extra built-in, higher defended and extra aggressive — and by no means too reliant on the USA.
Macron burdened that Europe can now not depend on the USA alone for its safety. “America has two priorities: the USA first, and the China query second. The European query isn’t a geopolitical precedence,” he mentioned.
Although the USA continues to be very a lot NATO’s strongest member and the important thing guarantor of European safety, Macron envisioned a time when Europe is ready to defend itself from Russia with out American assist. To get there, it must increase its protection sector, he mentioned.
“How can we construct our sovereignty, our autonomy, if we don’t assume the accountability of creating our personal European protection trade?” he requested.
Macron known as for the creation of a European academy to coach high-ranking navy personnel and in addition spoke at size about the necessity to bolster European manufacturing.
“We should produce extra, we should produce quicker, and we should produce as Europeans,” he added.
Although there’s broad consensus about the necessity to rebuild Europe’s industrial base, his give attention to shopping for European is not going to be standard in each capital. Certainly, some allies have been irked by his give attention to French and European weapons, significantly on the subject of shortly arming Ukraine.
His remarks may even increase some eyebrows in Washington. The speech included a number of pointed references to the Biden administration’s Inflation Discount Act and instructed that each the USA and China have determined to desert the worldwide commerce rule e-book and go it alone.
“The foundations of the sport have modified,” he mentioned. And if Europe doesn’t adapt, he mentioned, will probably be left behind.
Beatriz Ríos in Brussels contributed to this report.
