Former French Prime Minister and presidential candidate Gabriel Attal has called for the creation of a United States of Europe in a speech delivered in Reims at the premises of European space startup Latitude.
Gabriel Attal argued that Europe has entered an era in which individual nation-states can no longer compete effectively with continental powers such as the United States and China in areas including technology, industry, energy and defence. He said that Europe could become the world’s leading economic and technological power if its countries were prepared to integrate much more deeply.
His proposal would not create a single European country or abolish existing nations. Instead, Attal envisages a core group of European states forming what he described as an economic, technological and ecological federation.
The project would involve removing remaining economic barriers between participating countries and moving towards common rules on taxation, labour, business and intellectual property, together with a common budget and common debt issuance. Attal described this as the next stage of European integration following the creation of the single market and the Euro.
Technology features prominently in his proposal. Attal identified artificial intelligence, quantum computing, space, energy, defence, payment systems and universities among the areas in which Europe needs to develop significantly greater strategic capacity. He argued that fragmented European economies currently lack the scale required to compete with the world’s largest powers.
Attal proposed initially forming a core group of perhaps eight or ten countries willing to proceed more quickly, mentioning Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, the Nordic countries and Poland as potential participants. He also said he would like the United Kingdom eventually to join such a project. Sovereign powers including national defence, diplomacy, justice and internal security would remain with individual states.
Attal said the project could be established within a decade and proposed eventually putting it to voters through simultaneous referendums across participating countries.
You can read his full speech here or watch it here.
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