France’s Macron, EU’s Tusk begin work on overhaul of European bloc

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday he would begin working immediately with European Council President Donald Tusk on the overhaul of the bloc, which needed a new and ambitious policy.

“I believe profoundly in the overhaul of the Europe,” Macron told reporters before the two men sat down to dinner.

“I am counting a lot on President Tusk and his leadership to go further in this overhaul.”

Mr. Macron wants deeper security cooperation with Europe, but he may find it hard to break the mould of predecessors Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr. Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, chairs EU summits as head of the European Council, which groups the national governments of the 28-member bloc.

“I have come with a simple message. Europe needs your energy, imagination and courage and when I say Europe I am not thinking of the institutions, but millions of Europeans who see your victory as a sign of hope,” Mr. Tusk said. “Hope for a Europe that protects, wins and looks to the future.”

On the same day, France’s outgoing defense minister JeanYves Le Drian was appointed to head up a newly created Europe and Foreign Ministry, a move cementing Mr. Macron’s campaign pledge to focus on giving the European Union a new impetus.

Mr. Le Drian was seen as the driving force behind France’s counter-terrorism operations in West Africa and the Middle East, and a key player in efforts to fight the threat from Islamist militants at home by putting some 10,000 soldiers on the streets of France. —