The French president in his speech on Europe at the Sorbonne asked to “take massive strategic decisions and assume paradigm changes”, but the objectives cannot be achieved “with the rules of competition, commercial, monetary and budgetary policy that we have today”
by Federico Baccini
April 26, 2024
Brussels – There is no explicit attack on Ursula von der Leyen in the almost two-hour long keynote speech by the French president, Emmanuel Macron . To tell the truth, the only reference to von der Leyen is a single “the president of the European Commission” in the very first lines (and secondary to the name of the French commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton ). But the meaning of the speech on Europe delivered yesterday (25 April) by the tenant of the Elysée at the Sorbonne is an implicit change of direction at the top of the Union’s executive to lead an unprecedented challenge: ” We must be clear on the fact that our Europe today is mortal, it can die, and this depends only on our choices , which must be made now.”
A “simple” message, but it isn’t so simple. Because, in addition to the threats and possible responses put on the table, Macron has begun to open the Pandora’s box of leadership for the next (or next, because none of what he mentioned will be possible to solve in a single five-year mandate) European Commission . And it did so on the very day in which the European Parliament in Strasbourg – France – met in plenary session for the last vote of this legislature, the real start of the electoral campaign which will bring the citizens of the 27 member countries to the polls among on June 6th and 9th. “ We are at a turning point and our Europe is mortal, it simply depends on us .”
Peace and war on the continent, defense and security, digital transition and artificial intelligence, decarbonisation, industrial production and competitiveness, response to “the attack on liberal democracies, on our values, on what is the very foundation of European civilisation”. These are the challenges that “are being played today” according to French President Macron, but “everything has changed” compared to the recent past . A (new?) European leadership should focus on three lines of action: “Power, prosperity and humanism”. It is above all the question of “prosperity” that shows all the limits, if not of von der Leyen as president of the EU Commission, at least of the approach of the Union executive: “The rules of the game have changed, the solution lies in our ability to make massive strategic decisions and to undertake paradigm shifts ,” is the exhortation of Macron, who explicitly spoke of “a new model of growth and production”. According to Macron, these objectives are “clear”, but “we are not there and we cannot achieve them with the rules” of competition, commercial, monetary and budgetary policy that we have today , we will not succeed.
If for the past the response of the von der Leyen Commission – and of its predecessors, for intellectual honesty – could still work “in an ordoliberal model of competition and free trade”, for a future in which “the rules of trade are changing” this approach is completely insufficient: ” We regulate too much, we invest too little, we are too open and we do not defend our interests enough, this is the reality “. It is difficult to change the game without changing the coach (who instead proposed herself again at the helm of the EU executive as Spitzenkandidatin of the European People’s Party).
“ For a long time, Europe has been the main resource of our growth ,” Macron recalled. An era in which “raw materials did not seem limited, climate change was ignored, trade was free and everyone respected the rules”. This world, without too many mincing words, no longer exists: “We are dependent on fossil fuels unlike the United States of America and many other countries, we need critical materials and China has started to market them and secure many skills.” Faced with this scenario, the horizon for the Union must be to “build a new model of growth and production” , from the moment in which “there can be no power without a solid economic base, otherwise we declare it but it is financed from others”. And there can be neither ecological transition nor one of “Europe’s strengths”, the social model, “if we do not produce the money that we then want to redistribute”. Von der Leyen had to face a pandemic and two wars, which greatly complicated his path as president of the European Commission. But for the future of the Union, the search for new leadership at the Elysée may not go in the direction of confirming those who are inevitably linked to the solutions of the past, even recent ones.
Newsessentials Blog 
Posted on April 26, 2024
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