Emmanuel Macron has outlined a torrent of initiatives to overhaul the EU as he urged the bloc to be “bold” to thwart the populist threat, in the most integrationist speech by a French leader since the creation of the euro, reports the Financial Times.
The French president suggested creating a “common defence force,” two European agencies dealing with counter-terrorism intelligence and “radical innovation”, and a rescue squad for natural disasters.
He proposed to revive talks to levy a tax on financial transaction to fund development aid to Africa, sought to introduce a carbon pricing mechanism and defended a plan for each youngster to speak at least two foreign EU languages by 2024.
He also broke a French taboo by proposing an overhaul of the common agriculture policy and pushed for pan-European lists of candidates for 2019 European parliamentary elections.
However — amid profound reticence in Berlin two days after German elections heralding difficult coalition talks for chancellor Angela Merkel — Mr Macron fell short of specifics on the eurozone, only reiterating his wish for a common budget funded by corporate tax receipts and supervised by a finance minister.
“The challenge is vital, the sea walls behind which Europe has thrived have gone,” he told students in a long speech on Tuesday in the main amphitheatre of the Sorbonne University in Paris.
“We need to trace the only path ensuring our future; it is the refoundation of a sovereign, united and democratic Europe.” In an implicit swipe at critics in Berlin who have opposed the idea of a significant eurozone budget because it would imply more risk sharing and fiscal transfers, he added: “I have no red lines, I only have horizons.”