“In a few weeks, we will establish the priorities for the next legislature of the European Union,” write Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz in the preamble to a column. The French president and the German chancellor, who have not always been able to agree, call in unison to “meet the challenge” of a “mortal” Europe and to strengthen the sovereignty, competitiveness and growth of the Old Continent , while the European elections are looming on June 9. Macron is currently on a state visit across the Rhine, in order to revitalize the Franco-German couple.
“We cannot take for granted the foundations on which we have built our European way of life and our role in the world,” affirm the two leaders who identify a series of issues to which the future European legislature will have to respond. Starting with the challenge of sovereignty, the strengthening of which will require “an ambitious industrial policy”, they believe, particularly in the technological field. “We call for strengthening the EU’s technological capabilities by encouraging cutting-edge research and innovation and the development of necessary infrastructure, particularly in relation to artificial intelligence and health.”
Reducing “bureaucracy” and “decarbonizing our energy systems”
Regarding Europe’s competitiveness, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz call for “modernizing [les] competition rules” of the Old Continent. “We must fully exploit and considerably accelerate existing EU instruments, from important projects of common European interest (IPCEI) to the role of public procurement, by adopting a more strategic approach in relevant sectors”, they add. A modernization which must also concern the single market which “allows companies to develop innovative products and services, to grow and to be competitive”.
The two leaders also plead in favor of reducing “bureaucracy” and are careful not to omit the environmental issue. “We will fully decarbonize our energy systems. We will do this within the framework of a fully integrated and interconnected market, respecting the choices made at national level regarding the energy mix of each country. This is the European way: it will strengthen resilience and security of supplies and will open the way to more sovereignty”, we can read in this article.
A European financial market
Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz assure that they will support “an ambitious, solid, open and sustainable European trade policy which makes it possible to conclude fair trade agreements, promotes the interests of the EU, creates reciprocal possibilities for access to markets and guarantees truly level playing field with our trading partners.” Finally, regretting that “too many companies are turning to the other side of the Atlantic to finance their growth”, the two leaders call for looking “seriously” at “the question of a truly integrated, articulated European financial market around a banking union and a capital markets union, which addresses the problem of fragmentation and guarantees the global competitiveness of the European financial sector.
And to conclude: “The European Union is our common future”. Emmanuel Macron visited eastern Germany this Monday, a first since François Mitterrand in 1989. He visited, alongside his wife Brigitte, and accompanied by the German presidential couple, the imposing memorial of Holocaust, in the heart of Berlin, and decorated the Frenchman Serge Klarsfeld and his wife for their contribution to the memory of the Shoah. He also gave a speech in Dresden and attended a Franco-German Council of Ministers near Berlin this Monday evening.