During his state visit to Germany, French President Emmanuel Macron called on the EU to adopt a “European priority” strategy, especially in key areas such as defence and space, which is important in the current context of increasing global competition.

Macron pointed out that in the face of fierce competition from markets such as the United States, the EU needs to adopt a strategy of “buy European goods” in key areas to safeguard its economic and strategic autonomy. he said: “Our generation faces unprecedented investment needs and needs to pay for challenges such as security, climate change, artificial intelligence.” he called for the EU to double public funding, either by increasing budget scale or joint lending strategies, or through existing tools.

Macron argued that the EU needs to develop reciprocal terms and trade rules for fair competition to ensure European products are competitive in the global markets. he stressed: “Let’s double the European budget to boost economic growth and social development across Europe.”

During a visit to Germany, Macron and German Prime Minister Scholz jointly called for progress towards a capital market union, encouraging funding for corporate financing and driving growth in investment and savings within Europe. They jointly issued a statement emphasizing the need to restart European securitisation markets in order to promote European financial integration and market efficiency, and to coordinate rules between member states on corporate bankruptcy treatment and tax laws to reduce barriers to legal differences.

Macrons visit to Germany is the first state visit of a French president to Germany in 24 years, which will test his ability to overcome the differences between Macron and Scholz. Despite the differences between the two countries on a number of major issues, the two leaders have expressed their willingness to work together to promote the process of European integration.

Analysts at the Jacques Delors Institute in France pointed out that German-French relations are indeed somewhat tense, but this tension is to a certain extent precisely because the two countries have dealt with some difficult issues.

Macron also stressed the threat of the Russian conflict to European security, pointing out that Europeans have a new responsibility to secure peace. he said Europe must consider its own defence and security and ensure that Europe can defend itself and maintain regional stability in the context of global turmoil.

Mujtaba Rahman, Chief Executive Officer of the Eurasian Group think tank, said the visit was an attempt at the highest political level to demonstrate the positive role that relations between the two countries are playing, but there are still fundamental differences on the major issues facing the EU, one of which is the key differences is European defense. Nonetheless, the leaders of the two countries showed a willingness to cooperate and hope to resolve these differences through joint efforts.