President Emmanuel Macron urged the EU on Thursday to build a stronger, more integrated defence sector and said the continent must not become a vassal of the US, Reuters reports.
“There is a risk our Europe could die. We are not equipped to face the risks,” Macron said in a speech at Sorbonne University in Paris, warning that military, economic and other pressures could weaken and split the 27-nation EU.
Macron called for increased European cybersecurity capabilities, closer defence ties with the UK post-Brexit and the creation of a European academy to train senior military personnel.
The French president said it was necessary to create “strategic intimacy” between the armies of EU countries. A European military academy should also be opened to start training military and civilian personnel in Europe to respond to security challenges, Macron said. He also added:
“There is no defence without a defence industry … we’ve had decades of under-investment,” he said, adding that Europeans should give preference to buying European military equipment.
“We must produce more, we must produce faster, and we must produce as Europeans,” Macron said. 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.
“The EU should create a rapid reaction force of up to 5,000 military personnel by 2025,” the president added.
Macron warned that Europe also risks falling behind economically in a context where major competitors are challenging global free trade rules, and he said it should aim to become a world leader in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, space, biotechnology and renewable energy.
The EU should agree to exceptions to its own competition rules so it can support firms in sectors such as artificial intelligence and green energy in the face of “excessive subsidisation” by the United States and China, Macron said.
“The era when Europe bought its energy and fertilisers from Russia, had production in China, and entrusted its security to the US is over,” Macron said. “The rules of the game have changed.”
Europe needs less fragmented markets for energy, telecoms and financial services and needs to cut red tape, he added.
The French leader hopes his speech will have the same impact as a similar speech he gave at the Sorbonne seven years ago, which foreshadowed some major changes in EU policy.
Thursday’s speech was seen by Macron’s advisers as France’s contribution to the EU’s strategic agenda for the next five years. The agenda is to be set after the European elections, when EU leaders will battle it out for the bloc’s top posts.
