French President Emmanuel Macron has called on the EU to assert itself as a true global force amid rising threats from China, Russia, and the U.S.
Speaking to European newspapers before a Brussels summit, he described these pressures as a vital “wake-up call” for economic, defence, and democratic renewal.
“Are we ready to become a power? This is the question in the field of economy and finance, in defence and security, and in our democratic systems,” he said. “In another era we might have said it is the moment to ‘assume our majority.’”
“The time has come to launch a shared debt capacity to fund our future expense—eurobonds for the future. We need big European programmes to finance the best projects.”
Germany and others remain sceptical, seeing it as France offloading its reform failures. Macron admitted France “has never had a balanced model, unlike certain economies of the north, which are built more on a sense of responsibility. And we have never had reforms like the ones initiated in the 2010s in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, which are paying dividends today.”
He highlighted global demand for EU bonds as a democratic alternative between China’s authoritarianism and a U.S. drifting from the rule of law. “The world markets are increasingly afraid of the American greenback [dollar]. They want alternatives. For investors everywhere, a democratic state of law is a huge attraction.”
The bloc needs €1.2 trillion yearly for defence, clean energy, and AI, he said, urging fair protection for European industries like China and America practise.
“The Chinese do it, the Americans too. Europe today is the most open market in the world. In the face of that, I am not saying we should be protectionist. It’s more a question of being coherent—in other words not imposing on our own producers rules which we do not impose on non-Europeans.”
“Today Europe faces a massive challenge, in a world of disorder,” Macron added. “Climate change is accelerating. The U.S.—which we thought would guarantee our security forever—is no longer sure. Russia was to give us cheap energy forever, but that stopped three years ago. China has become a rival that gets fiercer and fiercer. Today, we Europeans are on our own. But we have each other. We are 450 million people. It’s huge.”
On the recent Greenland dispute, where President Donald Trump backed off annexation threats, he warned against complacency. “At the end of a crisis, there is a cowardly tendency to sit back and say ‘phew.’ There are threats and intimidation, and then suddenly Washington gives way. And people think it’s over. Don’t believe it for a single second.”