TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
There is a risk Europe could die: Macron
"There is a risk our Europe could die," Macron said in a speech at the Sorbonne University in Paris, adding that Europe was at a tipping point and needed to do more to compete with rapidly re-arming global rivals.
Change Size
French President Emmanuel Macron attends a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish President Andrzej Duda (not pictured) during the Weimar Triangle Summit at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on June 12, 2023. (AFP/Sarah Meyssonnier/Pool)
F
rench President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday the battle to build a strong Europe was far from being won and that there was a risk Europe could fall behind global rivals in the coming decade.
"It can die and this depends only on our choices," Macron said in a speech at the Sorbonne University in Paris, adding that Europe was at a tipping point and needed to do more to compete with rapidly re-arming global rivals.
Macron also said that Europe risked falling behind economically in a context where global free-trade rules are being challenged by major competitors, and that it must review its growth model.
In his speech, Macron outlines his vision for Europe as a global power with the hope that it will have the same impact as a similar address he made seven years ago that prefigured some significant EU policy shifts.
With just three years left of his second and final term in office, 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 has not become a lame duck leader.
Macron lost his parliamentary majority in 2022 and has seen his personal popularity tumble, while his centrist Renaissance party is trailing the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in polls ahead of the June 6-9 European Parliament elections.
Macron's aides have revealed little about the content of the speech, which as in 2017 will be delivered at Paris' Sorbonne University, other than to say he wants to plot a roadmap for Europe as a more assertive power against a more challenging global backdrop that includes wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
