French President Emmanuel Macron called during his annual speech to ambassadors on Monday (28 August) for institutional changes to the European Union to meet present challenges and maintain Europe’s and the West’s influence.

For almost two hours, Macron set out the priorities for French diplomacy at the Élysée Palace, noting the “international context is becoming more complicated and poses the risk of a weakening of the West and more particularly of our Europe.”

According to the president, Europeans are witnessing an “objective dilution of [their] population, of [their] produced wealth, of [their] share in world trade” and a “progressive calling into question of the international order”.

This is exacerbated by the role of new international powers, the energy crisis, and by a “politics of resentment that feeds on reinvented or fantasised anti-colonialism in some cases, and on instrumentalised anti-Westernism in others.”

An international order shaken up by BRICS and their “desire to bring about an alternative order” and by “Sino-American tensions”, have led to the rules of international trade being called into question, said Macron.

Macron again called for “greater European involvement” in NATO.

“The European pillar [in NATO] is not NATO’s enemy”, he said, but must “take greater responsibility” for European defence.

This should make it possible to “move away from the situation of Europeans being in a geopolitical minority within NATO”, and will require an increase in the strength of the European defence industry.

However, it is also necessary to “think about European stability in terms of more than just security”, continued the president, who wants to build “a geopolitical Europe”.

To this end, the European Political Community (EPC), launched shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine, is a “decisive” factor in achieving “a Europe of peace”.

More than forty member states of the EPC will meet for a third summit in a year in October in Spain, where they will discuss security, the economy, the environment and immigration.

Institutional reform of the EU

According to the president, this requires institutional changes to be made in parallel with enlargement, “particularly with regard to the Western Balkans”.

“The heart of Europe needs to be more integrated if we are to meet the challenges of today,” he said, adding that “we therefore need to be bold enough to accept greater integration in certain policies, and perhaps at several speeds in this Europe.”

Meanwhile, Macron stated that the EU must remain “firm on doctrine” vis-à-vis Russia, adding that “Russia cannot and must not win this war”.

“It will be a considerable financial, diplomatic and capability investment for years to come” to pursue this objective, he acknowledged.

Reforming global governance

More broadly, to counter the decline of the West, the president called for “a profound reform of global governance”, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

This should be to include countries that are not currently part of it, otherwise “we will allow an alternative order to be created and we will move towards marginalising our own system”.

Macron also called once again for “boldness”, in order to work “on new formats” for cooperation between Europeans and emerging countries, including India, Brazil and South Africa, and “not to lock ourselves into existing formats”.

[Edited by Benjamin Fox/Alice Taylor]

Read more with EURACTIV