{"id":114798,"date":"2026-02-10T11:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T11:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=114798"},"modified":"2026-02-10T11:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T11:59:12","slug":"macron-urges-europe-to-start-acting-like-world-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=114798","title":{"rendered":"Macron urges Europe to start acting like world power"},"content":{"rendered":"
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French President Emmanuel Macron has urged Europe to assert itself on the world stage, saying it is time to start acting like a \u201cpower\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the face of growing threats from China, Russia and now the US, he told a group of European newspapers that the continent faced a \u201cwake-up call\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn another era we might have said it is the moment to \u2018assume our majority\u2019,\u201d he said ahead of an EU summit in Brussels later this week.<\/p>\n

Macron repeated his call for EU-wide mutualised loans in order to raise hundreds of billions of euros needed for industrial investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time has come to launch a shared debt capacity to fund our future expense \u2013 eurobonds for the future. We need big European programmes to finance the best projects,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Similar calls in the past have met scepticism from Germany and other countries, who feel France wants to use Europe to bear a financial burden which it alone \u2013 because of its failure to reform \u2013 is unable to take up.<\/p>\n

Macron admitted that France \u201chas never had a balanced model, unlike certain economies of the north, which are built more on a sense of responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we have never had reforms like the ones initiated in the 2010s in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, which are paying dividends today.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he said there was growing demand in the world\u2019s financial markets for mutualised European debt, which currently the EU was not equipped to supply.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world markets are increasingly afraid of the American greenback [dollar]. They want alternatives\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cFor investors everywhere a democratic state of law is a huge attraction. And when I look at the world as it is, we have the authoritarian regime that is China, and on the other side we have the US distancing itself further and further from a state of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Macron, the 27-member EU needs \u20ac1,2tn (\u00a31tn; $1.4tn) a year to invest in the vital sectors of security and defence, clean energy, and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Calling on the EU to \u201cprotect\u201d these and other industries, he said: \u201cThe Chinese do it, the Americans too. Europe today is the most open market in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the face of that, I am not saying we should be protectionist. It\u2019s more a question of being coherent \u2013 in other words not imposing on our own producers rules which we do not impose on non-Europeans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToday Europe faces a massive challenge, in a world of disorder,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate change is accelerating. The US \u2013 which we thought would guarantee our security for ever \u2013 is no longer sure. Russia was to give us cheap energy for ever, but that stopped three years ago. China\u2026 has become a rival that gets fiercer and fiercer.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we Europeans are on our own. But we have each other. We are 450 million people. It\u2019s huge. For me [becoming a power] is the fulfilment of the European adventure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came together to stop war, we came together to build a market. But we always forbade ourselves to think of power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the latest stand-off with Washington over Greenland, at the end of which US President Donald Trump appeared to back down from threats to annex the Danish territory, Macron said the Europeans should not be fooled.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of a crisis, there is a cowardly tendency to sit back and say \u2018phew\u2019. There are threats and intimidation, and then suddenly Washington gives way. And people think it\u2019s over.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t believe it for a single second,\u201d the French leader said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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French President Emmanuel Macron has urged Europe to assert itself on the world stage, saying it is time to start acting like a “power”.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3798,1910,4553,10,9,153],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-international","category-macron","category-politics","category-popular","category-power"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}