Emmanuel Macron | Champion of European autonomy

In 1962, French President Charles de Gaulle declared that “Europe must be organised so that it depends on no one”. Now as the world order reassesses itself in light of various upheavals, the same rhetoric rings true from the same quarter as it had over 60 years ago. On February 13, at the Munich Security Conference, French President Emmanuel Macron stated that “Europe has to learn to become a geopolitical power”.

Over the past few weeks, Mr. Macron has been clear that Europe must fashion for itself a path of ‘strategic autonomy’ by deepening the EU’s single market, reducing dependencies on external powers especially in critical sectors such as AI and rare-earth minerals, supporting domestic companies by bringing in a ‘Buy European’ drive, and focusing on creating deep-strike capabilities and re-articulating nuclear deterrence (France is currently the only nuclear power in the EU). On January 20, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the French President emphasised, “…building more economic sovereignty and strategic economy, especially for the Europeans,… is the core answer”.

Mr. Macron’s push for European autonomy is a result of three main geopolitical realities that Europe is facing at the moment. One, the Russia-Ukraine war. Europe has been supplying Ukraine with arms and aid. Even with such help, Russia is incrementally advancing into Ukrainian territory, with peace talks being endlessly dragged on without breakthroughs. Economic sanctions on Russia as well as Europe’s support for Ukraine have meant that Russia is no longer a reliable energy partner for the bloc.

Second, the dominance of China and Chinese companies in areas of critical security such as rare-earth minerals/metals. European investments have not been able to withstand China’s position as a fierce competitor in these sectors.

Finally, and the most alarming of all, has been the volatility of the U.S. as both a trade and a security partner. Considered its most traditional trade partner as well as its largest security guarantor under the NATO framework, the U.S. has now become a flashpoint for Europe. If the sweeping tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump were not enough, his aggressive bid for ownership of Greenland, an island under Danish sovereignty, has signalled to Mr. Macron that the U.S. is no longer reliable as a stable partner. “There are threats and intimidation and then suddenly Washington backs down. And we think it’s over. But don’t believe it for a second,” Mr. Macron said in an interview earlier this month.

This is not the first time that the French leader has put forth his idea of European autonomy. In fact, right at the beginning of his political career in 2017, his foreign policy stood out for its emphasis on strategic autonomy for Europe. While the idea had few takers back then, Mr. Macron has stuck true to his initial stand. He reiterated his position in 2023, when, after a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he said Europe must not become “America’s followers” and that it must not get “caught up in crises that are not ours”, referring to Europe possibly getting dragged into a confrontation between the U.S. and China over Taiwan.

Now, by using the ‘Greenland moment’, Mr. Macron is actively rallying European powers to confront their standing in the world order, and strengthen Europe’s ability to stand up to both the U.S. and China. “We have the Chinese tsunami on the trade front, and we have minute-by-minute instability on the American side,” Mr. Macron warned.

Regional distrust

Mr. Macron has advanced the call for European autonomy on two main policy pillars, the first being eurobonds. As individual nation states may not be able to fund the scaling up of critical sectors, a common borrowing mechanism will enable joint investments in specific industries such as security and defence, climate, AI and quantum computing. These “eurobonds”, Mr. Macron believes, could fund strategic investments for Europe and challenge the hegemony of the U.S. dollar.

The second policy is the Industrial Accelerator Act, which is expected to be published on February 25 by the European Commission. The Act is meant to reconcile decarbonising high emission industries with maintaining competitiveness both internally and internationally. One of its key provisions includes introducing local-content, that is ‘Made in Europe’ requirements in public procurement and consumer schemes. It also imposes certain restrictive criteria on foreign investment in the EU.

However, Mr. Macron has been having a tough time convincing other European nations, especially Germany and Italy, Europe’s two main industrial powerhouses. His ‘Make in Europe’ rhetoric, and pushback on foreign investment in critical sectors has come across as a tad too protectionist for Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

At the informal summit of leaders of the EU in Belgium on February 12, member states committed to the idea of a ‘One Europe, One Market’, with Germany and France focusing on their goal of creating a “competitive industry in Europe”, without clearly addressing the apparent differences in how they wish to achieve the same. However, Mr. Macron has always maintained that “all this must be done in consultation and coordination with all European partners” and structured at the level of the EU.

Domestic insecurities

However, all such grand plans may come to naught, if in next year’s presidential elections in France, the far-right National Rally (RN) party comes to power. Mr. Macron will not be able to contest as there is a two-term constitutional limit on the presidency. This means that Emmanuel Macron has just one more year left in office. And if the RN does come to power, there is no guarantee that it will honour Mr. Macron’s agenda and commitments to the EU, as the RN has always been a Eurosceptic party going as far as to suggest, at one point, leaving the bloc.

Mr. Macron has been trying to expand his influence within the French bureaucracy and potentially stop the Rally’s populist agenda by appointing close allies to top government posts such as replacing France’s top auditor, and reshuffling foreign embassies.

Mr. Macron’s rule has been unstable ever since his announcement of snap elections in 2024 when his centrist alliance lost its majority in the European Parliament. As the sudden elections again resulted in a hung Parliament, he went on to appoint three different Prime Ministers in succession until October 2025, as each one was voted out by no-confidence motions or tendered resignations due to political backlash.

These successive short-lived governments have reduced Mr. Macron’s standing both domestically and internationally. It remains to be seen how he attempts to bridge his European agenda with the hypernationalist discourse of the RN.

Published – February 22, 2026 02:16 am IST