Faced with rising nationalism and the crisis of liberal globalisation "a humanist and progressive path exists" said Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday 27 August at the annual conference of French ambassadors.
Prepared for a "long and tough" European battle ahead of the May 2019 European elections, the French president has not dropped any of his pro-European convictions that he set out at the end of September last year at Sorbonne University (see EUROPE 11870), and he is planning to step up efforts to convince European citizens and leaders of the need for Europe to defend its integrity and values at a time of Brexit and unliberal democracies and to provide itself with "strategic autonomy" if it wants to have clout on the international stage.
The French leader set out his vision of a "Europe of several circles" with a Europe-market that is bigger than the current European Union, which would draw up strategic partnerships with neighbours such as Turkey and would hold dialogue with Russia. At the heart of this group, the eurozone countries would gradually become more interconnected in greater fiscal and social convergence.
In order to advance down this path, Germany would have to do a U-turn on its taboo of financial ‘transfers’ between member states, and France would have to do likewise in terms of its refusal to amend the treaties "for the EU and the eurozone", said Macron.
When it comes to the security domain, Europe by boosting its common defence policy and proposing to set up a European Defence Fund (see EUROPE 12040), Europe "has become aware that it has to protect itself" said the French leader, calling for the European security architecture to revisited in order to further strengthen the links of mutual solidarity and defence inscribed in the treaties (Article 42.7).
Blaming the crisis of multilateralism on the US administration which "seems to turn its back on history", the French president did not deny that "trade is not fair at international level and the world of globalisation has created in equalities that are no longer sustainable".
France, which will chair the G7 in 2019, recommends reform of the WTO and the ILO, a body that will soon be a hundred years old. It is planning to defend environment diplomacy to bring the Paris Climate Agreement into practice.
Finally, a Paris Peace Forum will be held on 11 November, in which states, international organisations and civil society will participate, and which will launch reflection on global governance.
In terms of the migration issue, which has provoked a "political crisis" in the EU, Macron said it had been caused by lack of European solidarity (see other article). "We produced what’s happening in Italy", he said, but that didn’t excuse xenophobic speech that doesn’t solve anything.
Pointing out that France is taking care of 250 refugees rescued from the sea this year by boats subject to the Italian systematic rejection policy, he recommended a European immigration policy to be constructed with Africa to limit the flows of migration and more effective organisation of returns. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)