'EU could die': President Macron warns European leaders over performance compared to US and China
3 October 2024, 16:32
The EU “could die” unless it makes changes to compete on key economic indicators with the US and China, Emmanuel Macron has warned.
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Speaking at the Berlin Global Dialogue event, the French president said Europe will be “out of the market” in “two to three years” if it fails to correct its “over-regulating and under-investing”.
Macron said Washington and Beijing both outperformed the EU in terms of economic output and investment.
He said member states needed to press for global trade rules to be kept fair, according to Bloomberg.
Macron said: “The EU could die, we are on the verge of a very important moment.
“Our former model is over – we are over-regulating and under-investing. In the two to three years to come, if we follow our classical agenda we will be out of the market.”
Mr Macron’s comments reflect some of the findings of a landmark report by former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi.
The report demanded a wider “industrial strategy for Europe”, involving €800 billion (£673 billion) in annual investment to prevent the EU from falling behind the US and China.
Read more: Can Starmer's EU security pact keep Britain safe as Europe tightens its defence?
The French president also argued that Europe is lagging behind the Unites States and China on key files such as climate change, AI, defence and security.
In April, Mr Macron called for more integrated European defence saying that “we are not equipped to face the risks,” as he outlined his vision for a more assertive EU on the global stage.
Mr Draghi’s report also called on EU governments to spend big on joint-defence projects because they could no longer rely entirely on the US.
Some EU governments fear that a second Donald Trump presidency will pose a risk to Nato if he wins November’s US election.
The Republican presidential candidate said he would allow Putin and Russia to “whatever the hell they want” to any Nato member country not hitting defence-spending targets.
In 2019, Mr Macron described Nato as “brain dead” saying that Europeans could no longer rely on the US to provide the continent with a security umbrella against threats such as Russia.
