President Emmanuel Macron appealed on Thursday for stronger, more integrated European defences and said the continent must not become a vassal of the United States, as he outlined his vision for a more assertive European Union on the global stage.
With just three years left of his second and final term in office, and after losing his parliamentary majority in 2022, Macron, 46, wants to show his critics that he retains the energy and fresh thinking that helped propel him into the presidency in 2017 and that he has not become a lame duck leader.
“There is a risk our Europe could die. We are not equipped to face the risks,” Macron said in his speech at the Sorbonne University in Paris, warning that military, economic and other pressures could weaken and fragment the 27-nation EU.
Macron said Russia must not be allowed to win in Ukraine, and he called for a boost in Europe’s cybersecurity capacity, closer defence ties with post-Brexit Britain, and the creation of a European academy to train high-ranking military personnel.
“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.
Macron has long called for European “strategic autonomy” involving less reliance on the United States, a stance that has gained greater resonance in the face of Donald Trump’s renewed bid for the White House. Trump has often accused Europe of free loading on defence at the United States’ expense.
Macron said Europe also risks falling behind economically in a context where global free-trade rules are being challenged by major competitors, and he said it should aim to become a global leader in artificial intelligence, quantum c