French President, Emmanuel Macron, has called on European Union countries to close ranks and strengthen their economic power in the face of growing competition from China and the United States (U.S.).
Macron gave the warning that Europe risks being left behind if it fails to act now.
Speaking ahead of an informal EU summit on competitiveness, Macron said Europe must invest more, protect its economy, forge new trade alliances and assert itself more confidently on the global stage.
His comments were published on Tuesday in interviews with several European newspapers, including Le Monde and Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung.
“There is a risk that Europe could be swept aside within the next five years if we do nothing,” Macron said.
“We must think of Europe as a power that we create together.
“We must be able to protect ourselves from the rest of the world and try to spread our model.”
EU leaders are set to meet on Thursday to discuss how the changing geopolitical and economic environment is affecting the bloc’s competitiveness.
Macron said Europe needs to “wake up and grow up geopolitically” in response to these challenges.
He argued that the EU is falling behind its global rivals in key areas of future growth.
“We are not investing enough in defence and security, in technologies and ecological transition, in artificial intelligence and quantum technology,” Macron said.
“These are the three battles that need to be fought. We are investing much less than the Chinese and the Americans.”
To close the gap, the French president called for greater joint European investment and renewed his push for a shared EU borrowing capacity.
He proposed the use of common debt instruments, such as Eurobonds, alongside private and public funding to finance spending on defence, green technologies, artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
Macron stressed that any such borrowing should be used to fund new investments rather than to consolidate existing national debt, an apparent reference to concerns over France’s own high debt levels.
