Strasbourg (AFP)
Deploring "ambient defeatism", Emmanuel Macron defended on Sunday the effectiveness of the European response to the Covid-19 crisis while calling on the EU to "decide faster and stronger" in the future.
"I hear this trial of Europe made every morning, this kind of ambient defeatism which consists in saying that Europe is not at the rendezvous", declared the French president while giving, of the hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the kick-off of the Conference on the Future of Europe.
"I answer (to these critics) that on the contrary, in this crisis, it is a European model that has asserted itself (...). This model, our deep identity, is what made us stick "and" European cooperation has saved lives ", he added.
"Faced with authoritarianism, the only valid answer is the authority of democracy" which "is won only by efficiency and speed", he insisted.
"Our European democracy is a democracy of compromise, of balance, which is a virtue that we must protect, but it is also a weakness when it suffocates in its own procedures".
"We must decide faster and stronger", he demanded, in particular to strengthen "the sovereignty" of the continent in strategic sectors such as health.
Calling "for the return of big projects" and "big ambitions", he stressed that the Conference on the future of Europe was "an unprecedented exercise" to "consider our future" for the next 10 years.
"From March 2022, when the synthesis of the debates will be established, we, the political leaders (...), will have to take it into account in order to reform Europe", he insisted while making "the commitment on behalf of the presidency. French Council of the European Council in the first half of 2022 ".
A national version of this initiative is planned with the organization in September of "citizen consultations" of French people drawn by lot in the 18 regions of the metropolis and overseas.
At the end of the day, Emmanuel Macron must go to the Bas-Rhin prefecture to sign, with local elected officials, a three-year contract to support Strasbourg's European dimension.
He said he had received the commitment from the President of the European Parliament David Sassoli that the parliamentary sessions would resume "as soon as possible" in Strasbourg, where they have not been held since February 2020 because of the health crisis.
© 2021 AFP