'Europe is mortal,' Macron warns as he calls for more EU unity and sovereignty in landmark speech

The 27-country bloc needs to urgently rethink its defence and economic models to not fall behind its rivals, the French leader said.

Transcript

00:00 "Our Europe today is mortal, it could die."

00:04 That was the stark warning issued by Emmanuel Macron in a speech at Sorbonne in Paris.

00:10 Seven years ago, in the same place, the French president defended a sovereign Europe.

00:15 Now presenting his vision for the future of the Union, he's arguing for a powerful and

00:19 geopolitical Europe to meet military and security challenges.

00:23 "The road is long, because we have, we must be lucid, decades of under-investment in

00:33 our own production.

00:34 And deep down, the dividends of peace have made Europeans have produced insufficiently,

00:41 invested.

00:42 Which has also created a very strong dependence on the non-European industry.

00:46 So, in the face of this, we must produce faster, we must produce more, and we must produce

00:55 more in European."

00:58 For Macron, if Europe wants to earn respect, it must also change the paradigm of its economic

01:03 and trade ties.

01:04 With more demanding social and environmental standards, it risks losing ground to the United

01:09 States and China, which are pursuing more aggressive policies to defend their interests.

01:14 "We have a challenge today, it is to go much faster and to review our growth model.

01:25 Because there too, the rules of the game have changed.

01:29 And they have changed in a simple way.

01:31 The first two international powers have decided not to respect the rules of trade.

01:37 I say it in very simple terms.

01:39 But that's the reality since the Ancestry Reduction Act.

01:44 "The French president wants to speed up industrial policy in five strategic sectors.

01:51 Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, space, biotechnologies and new energies.

01:59 According to Macron, it's also the battle for European values and liberal democracies

02:04 that's now at stake.

02:07 Emmanuel Macron's speech definitely had an electoral flavor behind it.

02:11 With about six more weeks to go before the European elections, the president's party

02:15 renaissance is currently lagging behind in the polls, 10 to 16 points behind the French

02:20 far right, which the president didn't hesitate to tackle indirectly during his speech, claiming

02:25 that nationalists want to stay in the European House but without paying the rent.

02:30 Sofia Katsulkova in Paris for Euronews.

02:33 [WHOOSH]