French president tells fellow European leaders the bloc is falling behind the US and China because of over-regulation and under-investment

French president tells fellow European leaders the bloc is falling behind the US and China because of over-regulation and under-investment

The EU “could die” unless it makes itself more competitive with the US and China, Emmanuel Macron has warned.

The French president said the bloc was over-regulating and under-investing at the Berlin Global Dialogue event.

Washington and Beijing both outstripped the EU in economic output and investment, he said, before calling on the bloc to complete its banking union package of financial rules.

Member states also needed to press for global trade rules to be kept fair, he added, according to Bloomberg.

  • Naich@lemmings.worldEnglish
    67·
    10 hours ago

    Call me a mad old communist stooge but I count quality of life rather than economic output as a marker of success.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
      151·
      9 hours ago

      True to an extent but you need economic output to give you weight in the international stage. Otherwise you start getting pushed around by other superpowers.

      • drspodEnglish
        6·
        4 hours ago

        Otherwise you start getting pushed around by other superpowers

        This is more a coincidence of the status quo rather than a consequence of an inherent correlation between economic output and geopolitical power.

      • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        7 hours ago

        Also you need at least a reasonable amount of economic output to have good quality of life. I’m not saying good quality of life should be defined as full-blown sigma grindset consumerism, but I don’t think most people would define it as cottagecore subsistence farming, either.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          31·
          6 hours ago

          You know, if you look at actual subsistence farmers, I never get a cottagecore vibe. They can and do use modern bits and pieces to make their work a little less back-breaking, as they can scavenge or occasionally buy them. A pole lathe is less aesthetic when it’s powered by a cut-off bungie cord.

          • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            3 hours ago

            Don’t mind me; I was just going for linguistic flourish rather than exact verisimilitude.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        21·
        6 hours ago

        And also just buy things that are nice for ordinary people. In the West we don’t feel it, but in a place like Africa the inability to produce anything high-tech themselves hurts.

  • MehBlah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    401·
    10 hours ago

    No they are not. They are kicking the rest of the worlds ass in standard of living. What that useless frog leg is saying the regulations are preventing his rich masters from being even richer.

  • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.worldEnglish
    22·
    10 hours ago

    De-regulation only helps rich assholes get richer. What he really means is the rich are getting marginally less rich right now, and they don’t like it.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    6·
    9 hours ago

    While I’m generally sympathetic to the idea that the EU should strive to be more economically-competitive, I’m also skeptical that economic competitiveness represents an existential threat for the EU.

    I’d also point out that the devil is in the details of what specific changes one plans to make. France has a lot of EU regulation and economic restrictions that they like. I suspect that a lot of people might point to the Common Agricultural Policy as something to reduce in size, though it’s generally benefitted France at the expense of some other members.