French President Emmanuel Macron considers the key goal of European policy to be the “strategic autonomy” of Europe, which will be achieved through strong defense and an adequate industrial policy.
“Europe must fight for strategic autonomy. We do not want to depend on others for critical issues. On the day when you lose your choice in energy, in defense methods, in social networks, in artificial intelligence, because you no longer have the appropriate infrastructures, at some point you will fall out of history,” Macron said in an interview with Les Echos published on Sunday.
In his opinion, such European sovereignty, for which “milestones” are already marked, requires an industrial strategy with high goals, including in the field of defense, which will ultimately lead to less dependence on third parties.
The French president sees the cornerstones of “strategic autonomy” in strengthening common European industrial policy, formulated in documents such as the Chips Act (semiconductor manufacturing), Net Zero Industry Act (the EU’s accelerated energy transition plan) and the Critical Raw Material Act (reliable supply of critically important raw materials).
“We started to create factories for the production of batteries, hydrogen components, electronics,” Macron noted.
According to the French President, this struggle of Europe has been “ideologically won”, and the first results are already visible, but this course must be firmly followed, because the tasks are long-term.
He also sees the defense industry as a decisive component of European independence and emphasizes that in the context of events in Ukraine, it should produce faster.
“The European defense industry does not meet all needs and remains very fragmented, which forces some countries to temporarily turn to American or even Asian suppliers,” Macron said.
