EU leaders are raising the stakes ahead of their informal gathering on Thursday, with both European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron unveiling separate pitches for a major overhaul of Europe’s economic doctrine over the past 24 hours.
In an interview with seven media outlets published earlier today, Macron repeated his call for the EU to issue common debt to fund strategic investments, saying the move is needed to "challenge the hegemony of the dollar” and avoid Europe becoming a spectator of its own decline.
The French President also said Europe faces an “openly anti-European” US administration that wishes “the dismemberment” of the EU, according to the Financial Times’ report of the interview.
France has confirmed it will join a meeting convened by the German, Italian and Belgian leaders at the margins of the retreat on Thursday – in a signal of increasing appetite for cooperation between the bloc’s largest economies. Rome and Berlin had issued a joint paper on Europe’s competitiveness last month, sidelining Paris.
