PARIS – French president Emmanuel Macron has called on Europe to boost investment in strategic sectors or risk being “swept aside” in the face of competition from the United States and China, in an interview published yesterday. 

The French leader warned that US “threats” and “intimidation” were not over and urged against complacency in an interview with several European publications, including France’s Le Monde, English-language publications The Economist and The Financial Times, and Germany’s Suddeutsche Zeitung. 

Ahead of an EU meeting on competitiveness this week, he advocated for “simplifying” and “deepening the EU’s single market,” and for “diversifying” trade partnerships. 

“We are currently in a phase I would call a ‘Greenland moment’,” Macron said. 

US president Donald Trump last month threatened to annex the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland and impose tariffs on any European countries that opposed him but then reversed course. 

“There are threats and intimidation. And then, suddenly, Washington backs down. And we think it’s over. But don’t believe it for a second. Every day, there are threats against pharmaceuticals, digital technology,” he said. 

“When there is blatant aggression… we must not bow down or try to reach a settlement. We have tried this strategy for months, and it has not worked. But above all, it strategically leads Europe to increase its dependence,” he added. 

He said the European Union’s public and private investment needed around 1.2 trillion euros (US$1.4 trillion) per year, including green and digital technologies, defence, and security. And he renewed his call for common European debt, an idea France has championed for years, but other countries have rejected. 

“Now is the time to launch a common borrowing capacity for these future expenditures, future-oriented Eurobonds,” he said. – Nampa/AFP