Pan-European Foundation

Je propose de bâtir les États-Unis d’Europe.

Let’s build the United States of Europe! 🇪🇺 In Reims, I came to wake up this European dream again. The grammar of geopolitics has changed. We now live in a world of continent-powers. Russia is attacking our security, China our economy, and the United States is attacking our values. And alongside these rivals stands a threat with neither capital nor flag: climate change. Facing them, Europe is fragmented. Splintered. Divided. It is as if we imposed a 45% tariff on our own goods and 110% on our own services. We tax ourselves far more than the United States has ever threatened to. And on the decisions that matter most, unanimity allows a single government to hold all the others back. Look at Ukraine: Europe's support cannot depend on whether Viktor Orbán loses an election. That is European vetocracy. Yes, the European Union has achieved outstanding accomplishments. We love Europe. And it is precisely because we love it, because we defend it, that we can look at it honestly: today's European Union has reached its limits. And so, there are only two possible choices: the fall of the EU, becoming the 51st American state or the 24th Chinese province; or a new dream, a dream within reach: the United States of Europe. Let’s build the United States of Europe. What I am proposing is not the creation of a single country. It is merging our economies and our environmental futures into one. It is economic, technological, and environmental federalism among the countries that choose to join, a core group, to begin with. With the European Union, we created a single market. With the euro, we created a single currency. What I am proposing to you is a single economy. Together, with the United States of Europe, we will set out to conquer the economic, technological and ecological frontiers on which the prosperity of the 21st century will be built. We will set out to conquer artificial intelligence, space, decarbonised energy and tomorrow's defence. We will invent the first vaccine against cancer. For the French, for the Europeans, that means wages that finally catch up with American wages, and energy prices that are low and stable. And it means our freedom is no longer up for negotiation. Because power is not an abstraction. Power is prosperity. As President, my first mission will be to bring together a core group of European countries and convince them that the United States of Europe is the only way forward. The United States of Europe can be built in a matter of years. This Europe will be democratic. No more summits behind closed doors. We will need someone actually in charge, a president directly elected by voters across Europe, in the first truly pan-European election. A president with real power to act in every area we have decided to share. And let us be clear: our armed forces, our diplomacy, our courts will remain national. Our nuclear deterrent will remain French. France will remain France, with its own voice, its own history and its own freedom. I am running in this election to put forward the project of a generation, of a century. A project no other candidate will dare to propose. Because that is the question: would we rather become the 51st American state or the 24th Chinese province? Or do we want to be the driving force of the United States of Europe? Now it is our turn to decide. The time for fear is over. "A day will come," said Victor Hugo. For the United States of Europe, that day is here. Let's build it!