The EU “could die” unless it makes itself more competitive with the US and China, Emmanuel Macron has warned.
The French president said the bloc was over-regulating and under-investing at the Berlin Global Dialogue event.
Washington and Beijing both outstripped the EU in economic output and investment, he said, before calling on the bloc to complete its banking union package of financial rules.
Member states also needed to press for global trade rules to be kept fair, he added, according to Bloomberg.
“The EU could die, we are on a verge of a very important moment,” Mr Macron said. “Our former model is over – we are over-regulating and under-investing. In the two to three years to come, if we follow our classical agenda we will be out of the market.”
Mr Macron’s remarks echo some of the findings of a landmark report by Mario Draghi, the former Italian prime minister. His report demanded a wider “industrial strategy for Europe”, involving €800 billion (£673 billion) in annual investment to prevent the EU from falling behind the US and China.