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.

  • @NaichEnglish
    39•4 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
      11•3 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.

      • @CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        2•13 minutes 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.

      • @grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7•1 hour 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
          1•7 minutes 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.