0:00 Thank you very much live for your words.
0:03 Your majesties distinguished head of state and governments President Lagarde, ministers, ambassadors business leaders,
0:13 ladies and gentlemen.
0:15 I'm I'm extremely happy to be here.
0:18 And um it's it's great to be here
0:23 as a financial time times would say.
0:26 >> >> And um and uh and it's a time of peace, stability, and and predictability.
0:38 Uh So, let's try to address the key challenge of this world in a
0:42 in in a in a few minutes time,
0:43 but it's clear that we are we are reaching a time of of instability
0:48 of imbalances both from the security
0:51 and defense point of view
0:52 and the economic point of view.
0:54 Look at the situation where we are.
0:57 I mean a shift towards autocracy against democracy, more violence,
1:02 more than 60 wars in 2024,
1:04 an absolute record even if I understood a few of them were fixed.
1:09 And um and conflict has become normalized, hybrid expanding into new domains, space, digital,
1:16 information, cyber, trade, and so on.
1:20 It's as well a shift towards a world without rules where international law is
1:28 trampled under foot and where the only law
1:32 that seems to matter is
1:33 that of the strongest
1:36 and imperial ambitions are resurfacing.
1:40 Obviously, the Russian war the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine
1:45 which will enter into its fourth year next month.
1:51 And conflicts continue in the Middle East and across Africa.
1:54 This is as well a shift towards a world without effective collective governance
2:00 and where multilateralism is weakened by powers
2:03 that obstructed or turned away from it
2:06 and rules are undermined.
2:09 And I can multiply the examples of international bodies weakened
2:15 or left by the key economies.
2:19 And when we look at the situation,
2:21 it's it's clearly a very concerning time
2:24 because we are killing the structure where we can fix the situation
2:28 and the common challenges we have.
2:30 >> >> Without collective governance, cooperation gives way to relentless competition.
2:35 Competition from the United States of America through trade agreements
2:39 that undermine our export interests,
2:41 demand maximum concession concessions,
2:44 and openly aim to weaken
2:46 and subordinate Europe combined with an endless accumulation of new tariffs
2:52 that are fundamentally unacceptable.
2:54 Even more so when they are used as leverage against territorial sovereignty.
3:00 And competition from China where massive excess capacities are distortive practices threaten to overwhelm
3:07 entire industrial and commercial sectors.
3:10 Export control has become more dangerous new tools destabilizing global trade
3:15 and the international system.
3:18 And the answer in order to fix this issue is more cooperation
3:25 and building new approaches
3:28 and it's clearly building more economic sovereignty
3:31 and strategic economy especially for the Europeans
3:34 which is for me the core answer.
3:37 >> >> In this context, I want to exclude two approaches.
3:42 The first approach would be to I would say to passively accept the law
3:46 of the strongest leading to vassalization
3:52 and bloc politics.
3:54 I think accepting a sort of new colonial approach doesn't make sense.
4:00 And all the heads of state
4:01 and government and business leaders
4:03 which would be too complacent with such an approach will take a huge responsibility.
4:08 The second would be to adopt a purely moral posture, limiting ourselves to commentary.
4:14 That path would condemn us to marginalization and powerlessness.
4:21 Faced with the brutalization of the world,
4:23 France and Europe must defend an effective multilateralism
4:27 because it serves our interests
4:29 and those of all who refuse to submit to the rule of force.
4:35 And for me the two answers are on one side more sovereignty
4:40 and more autonomy for the Europeans,
4:43 on the other side an efficient multilateralism to deliver results through cooperation.
4:52 Obviously, France and Europe are attached to national sovereignty and independence,
4:56 to the United Nations and to its charter.
4:59 And it's not an old-fashioned way to leave multilateralism.
5:04 It's news not to totally forget what we learned from the Second World War
5:12 and remain committed to cooperation.
5:15 And this is also
5:16 because of those principles
5:17 that we have decided to join the mutual exercise in Greenland without threatening anyone,
5:22 but just supporting an ally and another European country, Denmark.
5:30 Facing disorder and this new situation,
5:34 um this year France holds the G7 presidency with a clear ambition to restore
5:40 the G7 as a forum for frank dialogue among major economies
5:45 and for collective and cooperative solutions.
5:49 Trade wars, protectionist escalation, races towards overproduction will only produce losers.
5:56 This is why addressing global economic imbalances is our key priority.
6:01 And if we look at the situation,
6:04 the current imbalances are due to some key phenomena
6:08 and we all have to deliver our own agenda.
6:12 This includes American overconsumption, Chinese underconsumption and overinvestment,
6:18 and European underinvestment and lack of competitiveness.
6:24 And these imbalances are also reflected in development gaps, by the way.
6:29 And we can no longer settle for aid
6:31 that neither delivers sufficient result nor enables countries to escape poverty.
6:36 So, our objective through the G7 is to demonstrate
6:41 that the world's major powers are still capable of reaching a shared diagnosis of
6:46 the global economy and committing to concrete actions.
6:51 Cooperating is not blaming is not about blaming others.
6:55 It is about assuming one's share of responsibility and contributing to solutions.
7:01 Here, this point is for I would say the global agenda
7:04 and our healthy uh our G7 agenda.
7:07 On the other side, we have the European answer.
7:09 And for me, Europe clearly has to fix its key issues,
7:13 the lack of growth, the lack of GDP per capita growth,
7:20 and um the scriptural of our strategy in order to deliver more sovereignty,
7:25 more efficiency, and more growth would be based on protection, simplification, and investment.
7:31 Because the diagnosis is well known,
7:32 European competitiveness still lags behind that of the US.
7:36 And in the current global order, facing uh precisely the Chinese approach,
7:42 we have to react.
7:43 So, first, protection.
7:45 Protection doesn't mean protectionism.
7:48 But today's Europeans are too naive.
7:50 This is the unique market open to everybody without checking level playing playing field.
7:58 Nobody can access the Chinese market
8:00 as people are exceeding accessing the European market for sure.
8:05 But even if you take the US and a lot of other countries,
8:10 the level of protection does exist for investment and trade.
8:15 And the Europeans are the only one not to protect their own companies
8:19 and their own markets
8:21 when the other countries doesn't respect level playing field.
8:25 This is why we have to be much more realistic
8:28 if we want to protect our chemical industry,
8:33 our industry from the automotive sectors to a lot of others
8:37 because they are being literally killed by the lack of respect of um a
8:43 normal framework and and level playing field.
8:47 Europe has very strong tools now
8:50 and we have to use them
8:51 when we are not respected
8:53 and when the rule of the game are not respected by the way.
8:56 The anti-coercion mechanism is a powerful instrument
9:00 and we should not hesitate to deploy it in today's tough environment.
9:04 We must also advance the principle of European preference.
9:08 There is an North American preference in your market.
9:13 There is no European preference today.
9:15 We are progressively creating it
9:17 and in the latest documents
9:19 and decisions taken by the decisions we we we do have the first examples
9:24 of that,
9:24 but this is extremely good.
9:26 And we are currently aligning closely with Germany to deliver an ambitious
9:29 and simple framework.
9:31 And this is a decisive project
9:33 and I count on the European Commission to present a proposal
9:36 as well by early 2026 with the highest possible level of ambition in order
9:43 to deliver I would say across the different sectors the principle of European preference.
9:50 This is a necessity.
9:52 We must act on imports as well regarding this protection issue.
9:57 And in the context of escalating trade tensions
9:59 and Asian overcapacities Europe must strengthen its trade defense instruments including mirror measures to
10:07 enforce regulatory standards and we must improve the quality
10:11 and added value of foreign direct investments targeting projects with strong export potential
10:17 and this is core for the rebalancing with China.
10:21 China is welcome but what we need is more Chinese foreign direct investment in
10:26 Europe in some key sectors to contribute to our growth to transfer some some
10:31 technologies and not just to export towards Europe some devices
10:36 or produces or products
10:38 which sometimes don't have the same standards
10:41 or are more are much more subsidized
10:44 as the one being produced in Europe.
10:47 It's not being protectionist it's just restoring this level playing field
10:53 and protecting our industry.
10:56 So from safeguard clauses to mirror clauses to European preferences
11:02 and incentives for more FDIs this strategy is absolutely key
11:08 and in parallel protecting our economies will also require a resilience strategy on both
11:14 imports and exports to de-risk supply chains particularly for raw materials
11:20 or rare earths semiconductors chips
11:23 and to diversify our trade partners.
11:26 The second pillar of the European economy
11:29 and and the European strategy should be simplification.
11:35 And when I speak about simplification, we started with CSRD, CSDDD,
11:40 and we have to do much more on different sectors,
11:42 and we did it during the past few weeks.
11:45 On automotive, and we have to do it on chemical, digital, AI, banking,
11:49 and so on.
11:51 And the core of the simplification is sometimes to get rid of some recent
11:55 regulations when they desynchronize in a certain way.
11:59 The European Union in comparison with the rest of the world.
12:03 But we have as well to accelerate the deepening of the single market.
12:08 On all these sectors,
12:10 the 450 million inhabitants
12:14 and consumers market should be the domestic market of all the EU companies.
12:19 It's not yet the case the case as long as you have complexities.
12:25 In doing so, we must ensure respect, technological neutrality,
12:29 and non-discrimination within the European Union.
12:32 This is another pillar, another point of simplification.
12:38 Neutral approach in terms of technology and non-discrimination.
12:43 We discriminate during such a long time between the different source of energies.
12:48 It's counter It's counterproductive for the Europeans themselves.
12:53 Companies have a role to play, and we must We must act,
12:57 and you must act.
12:58 And clearly, you must help identify
13:03 and concretely help us to simplify where it is needed.
13:08 But for me, this agenda of simplification is not a matter of discussion,
13:12 but just implementation, speed, and scale.
13:16 The third pillar of the European strategy for more competitiveness
13:20 and um more autonomy is based on investment
13:25 and innovation.
13:27 We have to invest much more.
13:29 If there is a GDP per capita so different between the US and Europe,
13:35 65% to 70% of the explanation is due to the difference in terms of
13:39 innovation.
13:41 And the US was much more innovative because of public and private investment.
13:46 So, in our budget for the the months to come
13:49 because we will negotiate during the years this year in Europe,
13:52 we have to invest much more money in the critical sectors where the innovation
13:57 will be made.
13:58 AI, quantum, green tech, but that's all defense and security.
14:03 The size of our common budget is not the right one.
14:06 We have to invest much more money in order to be much more credible
14:08 and then accelerate this innovation agenda.
14:11 But at the same time, if you look at the situation,
14:15 we don't have sufficient private investment.
14:18 And this is one of the main difference.
14:21 We do have the savings as the Europeans, much more than the US,
14:25 by the way.
14:27 But this saving is over invested in bonds and sometimes in equities,
14:34 but outside Europe.
14:36 So, this is why the top priority should be securitization program.
14:41 It is prepared.
14:41 We have to accelerate the implement the implementation.
14:45 And second, capital market union.
14:48 Precisely, in order to have more integration and simplification,
14:53 but to have an efficient capital market uh uh union in order to invest
14:58 much more money and use our savings to be invested on innovation
15:03 and equity in Europe.
15:06 This agenda for me is our top priority, both the global and European one.
15:12 And it is to be implemented in the months to come
15:14 because everything is about acceleration.
15:19 And France is committed to deliver this agenda.
15:21 We work very closely with our key partner.
15:23 And at the same time,
15:25 our objective for France is to stabilize our results
15:31 and our our macro approach
15:33 and to remain the highly attractive country we are.
15:36 We've been uh the most attractive country of Europe during the past 6 years
15:41 and to consolidate our deep structural reforms
15:45 and our key advantage.
15:48 >> >> And on top of the business framework we have,
15:51 I want here to insist on the fact
15:52 that we have a competitive stable low-carbon electricity supply.
15:57 We exported last last year 90 terawatt hour of electricity
16:01 and a low-carbon one based on the our nuclear model.
16:04 We have world-class innovation and research capabilities and we will improve them.
16:09 And we have one of the most vivid and active ecosystem in AI,
16:14 quantum computing, energy transition, etc. etc. and a lot of startups.
16:20 And the unicorns and large caps of these sectors are with me in my
16:24 delegation today.
16:26 And on top of that,
16:28 let me insist and I will stop here on the fact
16:31 that we have a high-quality infrastructure
16:33 and large market with strong purchasing power.
16:39 And we have a place where rule of law
16:43 and predictability is still the rule of the game.
16:48 And my guess is that it is largely underpriced by the market.
16:54 And beyond what you can do in terms of investment,
16:57 what you can do in terms of strong ambitions, having a place like Europe,
17:03 which sometimes is too slow, for sure, and is to be reformed, for sure,
17:10 but which is predictable, loyal,
17:14 and when where you know
17:17 that the rule of the game is just the rule of law,
17:22 it's a good place.
17:24 And I think this is a good place for today and for tomorrow.
17:30 So, we will be committed during 2026 to daily to try to deliver this
17:35 global agenda in order to fix global imbalances through more cooperation.
17:41 And we will do our best in order to have a stronger Europe.
17:45 Much stronger.
17:47 And more autonomous based on the the the pillars I just mentioned.
17:52 And base as well and we can revert in the dialogue,
17:55 but on more investment
17:57 and commitments on defense
17:58 and security because we have to invest much more
18:01 and invest much more.
18:02 Because we do believe and here in the epicenter of this continent,
18:08 we do believe that we need more growth,
18:10 we need more stability in this world.
18:13 But we do prefer respect to bullies.
18:17 We do prefer science to plutonism.
18:19 And we do prefer rule of law to brutality.
18:22 You're welcome in Europe and we you are more than welcome to France.
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