Macron asks Europe to start acting like world power

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - BRUSSELS — French President Emmanuel Macron has urged Europe to assert itself on the world stage, saying it is time to start acting like a "power".

"Are we ready to become a power? This is the question in the field of economy and finance, in defense and security, and in our democratic systems," he said.

Macron said Europe should brace for further clashes with the US and treat the recent "Greenland moment" as a wake-up call to push through long-delayed economic reforms, in interviews published on Tuesday in major European outlets, ahead of an EU summit on Thursday focused on competitiveness.

Macron repeated his call for EU-wide mutualized loans in order to raise hundreds of billions of euros needed for industrial investment.

"The time has come to launch a shared debt capacity to fund our future expense — eurobonds for the future. We need big European programs to finance the best projects," he said.

Macron said the Trump administration was being "openly anti-European" and seeking the EU's "dismemberment".

"The EU is under-indebted compared with the United States and China. In a moment of a technological investment race, failing to use this borrowing capacity is a profound mistake," Macron said.

The French leader renewed his call for common debt through eurobonds, arguing the EU needs around €1.2 trillion per year in public and private investment for green and digital technologies, defense and security.

"Now is the time to launch a common borrowing capacity for these future expenditures, future-oriented eurobonds," he said.

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EU leaders will hold an informal retreat on Thursday at Alden Biesen Castle in Belgium to discuss strengthening the single market, reducing economic dependencies and boosting competitiveness, with Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta joining the discussions to share their perspectives.

"When there is blatant aggression, we must not bow down or try to reach a settlement," Macron said. "We tried this strategy for months, and it's not working. But above all, it strategically leads Europe to increase its dependence."

Thursday's summit will include discussions around French-led plans for a "Made in Europe" strategy that would set minimum requirements for European content in locally manufactured goods.

Macron admitted that France "has never had a balanced model, unlike certain economies of the north, which are built more on a sense of responsibility.

"And we have never had reforms like the ones initiated in the 2010s in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, which are paying dividends today."

But he said there was growing demand in the world's financial markets for mutualized European debt, which currently the EU was not equipped to supply.

"The world markets are increasingly afraid of the American greenback [dollar]. They want alternatives… For investors everywhere a democratic state of law is a huge attraction. And when I look at the world as it is, we have the authoritarian regime that is China, and on the other side we have the US distancing itself further and further from a state of law," Macron said. — Agencies