French president Macron lays out his vision for European Union

PARIS : French President Emmanuel Macron pleaded Tuesday for a new era of European integration, calling on his EU partners -particularly Germany -- to raise their ambitions and go further in linking their economies, governments and armies.

The 39-year-old leader spoke for more than an hour and half in front of students at the Sorbonne university in Paris in a passionate speech that contained a raft of proposals for the 28-member European Union. “The Europe that we know is too weak, too slow, too inefficient,” he said. “But Europe alone can give us the ability to act in the world faced with big contemporary challenges.”

Macron’s proposals for a post-Brexit shake-up included a finance minister, budget and parliament for the 19-member eurozone, as well as a European “rapid reaction force” to work with national armies.

Macron is desperate for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s endorsement of his reform agenda, but his plans were dealt a blow by Sunday’s election in Germany that saw eurosceptic parties make gains.

Merkel must now try to form a government likely to include the Free Democratic Party (FDP), whose leader Christian Lindner is an outspoken critic of Macron’s European agenda and who considers a eurozone budget to be a “red line”.

Macron, however, steered clear of defining how big any future eurozone budget might be.