The head of state spoke about Europe’s “strategic autonomy”, a crucial issue which he believes can be won thanks to a strong defense and an appropriate industrial policy. If he believes that the continent has already won the ideological battle on this issue, it remains to carry out and maintain the course over time.
Emmanuel Macron advocates Europe’s strategic autonomy in an interview with Les Echos newspaper published this Sunday. A sovereignty for which “the milestones are in place”, which requires an ambitious industrial strategy, including in defence, which will ultimately lead to less dependence on third powers.
The question of European sovereignty
For the President, Europe must fight for its strategic autonomy. “Today the ideological battle is won” and the first results are showing, but we must be in charge because it is a long-term battle.
“Strategic autonomy must be Europe’s struggle. We don’t want to rely on others for critical issues. The day you don’t have choices on energy, on defence, on social media, on artificial intelligence, because we no longer have the infrastructure on these issues, leave history for a moment,” he said Les Echos.
An autonomy that goes through a reinforced common industrial policy, including the texts of the Chips Act (on semiconductors), the Net Zero Industry Act (plan to accelerate the energy transition within the bloc) and the Critical Raw Material Act (to secure raw materials). ) are stones in the building, according to the President.
“We have started to build factories for batteries, hydrogen components or electronics,” he cites as an example.
The European defense industry is also a key element of Europe’s independence. He also notes that it needs to produce faster in a context of the war in Ukraine, which has been going on for more than a year and whose end does not seem close.
“The European defense industry does not meet all needs and remains very fragmented, leading some countries to temporarily turn to American or even Asian suppliers,” Emmauel Macron said in Les Echos.
Be less dependent on the United States
Asked about the proactive industrial policies of the United States, particularly through its Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the head of state reiterated that “we will have our European IRA”. In response, he cites the three industry texts mentioned above. According to him, there are other pitfalls and some important battles to fight in order to break away from the first world power like the others, especially on the defense side.
“The key to becoming less dependent on the Americans is, first of all, to strengthen our defense industry, to agree on common standards. We all invest a lot of money, but we cannot have ten times more standards than the Americans!” he said.
Europe’s autonomy will also and necessarily come via nuclear and renewable energy, while he insists that Europe must not be dependent on “the extraterritoriality of the dollar”. “The paradox would be that when we introduce the elements of a genuine European strategic autonomy, through a kind of panic reflex we start to follow American policy,” the head of state continues.