French President Emmanuel Macron during his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 17, 2024 (POOL/AFP/Ludovic MARIN)
Emmanuel Macron called on Wednesday from Davos for Europe to withstand the shock of the “acceleration” of the world, pleading for new common European loans in order to invest in the “major priorities of the future”.
For the French president, 2024, the year of European elections in June, “will also be a year at the heart of all our challenges because we can see the world being recomposed before our eyes.”
“There is a tremendous acceleration of innovations, there is an acceleration of all agendas. And Europe is facing very great difficulties in this reorganization of the world,” he told an audience of decision-makers during of the meeting organized as every year by the World Economic Forum in the luxurious Swiss ski resort.
The French president estimated that it was necessary to “invest much more” in the face of the massive efforts of the United States and China in artificial intelligence or the greening of industry.
To do this, he encouraged the European Union to again issue common debt, as during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We need more European public investment”, “perhaps by daring to use ‘Eurobonds’ again”, “on major priorities for the future”, he declared.
– “Risk of division” –
“Aside from that, we also need to deepen the union of capital markets. We absolutely must have a financial Europe that is much more integrated,” he added, outlining initial proposals that could set the tone for his campaign for the European election.
On the diplomatic level, Emmanuel Macron also judged that 2024 would be “a key year” in European support for Ukraine, where he is due to go in February.
The EU must therefore avoid “giving in to the risk of division and try to have an effective agenda which will ensure the fact that Russia cannot and must not win in Ukraine”, he insisted, urging member states to “give visibility” to Kiev and “recommit” their “efforts whatever happens in the United States” during the November presidential election which could mark the return of Donald Trump to the White House.
More broadly, the French president came to praise the French meetings of 2024, including the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings in June and the Olympic Games in Paris, two events that he wants to use to make it a “useful diplomatic time” , he said without further details. Then the Francophonie summit and the reopening in December of Notre-Dame-de-Paris five years after the fire which ravaged the cathedral.
He also highlighted his economic record in France, ensuring that he had carried out all the reforms promised during his previous visit to Davos in 2018, shortly after his first election. And declined an “Act II” of these economic and labor market reforms, mentioned the day before during a press conference at the Elysée.
Accompanied by four regional presidents (Grand Est, Ile-de-France, Pays-de-la-Loire and Sud) and around twenty bosses of start-ups or SMEs, the Head of State confirmed that he wanted “tighten the rules of unemployment insurance” in France, and simplify the standards to free the economy.
Emmanuel Macron finally announced his intention to “initiate a reform of the first university cycle to better allocate our training to the needs of the nation”.
The objective is to keep its flagship promise in favor of “full employment”, while the unemployment rate seems to be stagnating around 7.4% after having fallen in recent years.
© 2024 AFP
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