PARIS -- French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said the European Union should embrace a joint budget, shared military force and harmonized taxes to stay globally relevant.
With Britain's exit from the bloc looming, Macron warned the rest of Europe against the dangers of anti-immigrant nationalism and fragmentation, saying it goes against the principles of a shared Europe born from the tragedy of world wars.
"We thought the past would not come back. ... We thought we had learned the lessons," Macron told a crowd of European students at the Sorbonne university.
After a far-right party entered the German parliament for the first time in 60 years, Macron said this isolationist attitude has resurfaced "because of blindness ... because we forgot to defend Europe."
"The Europe that we know is too slow, too weak, too ineffective," he said.
To change that, he proposed a joint budget for European countries sharing the euro currency that would allow investment in European projects and help stabilize the eurozone in case of economic crisis. This budget would at some point need to draw from national budgets of countries sharing the euro, for instance using domestic taxes on businesses.
Macron said the only way to make Europe strong in a globalized world is to reshape "a sovereign, united and democratic Europe."
While re-elected German Chancellor Angela Merkel has signaled openness to some of Macron's ideas, one potential ally in her new government is deeply skeptical about a eurozone budget. Macron's office said he wants his Europe strategy to play a role in Germany's coalition-building talks.
To reduce inequalities across the EU, Macron also suggested greater harmonization of EU tax policies -- notably on corporate taxes, and on taxing Internet giants where they make money and not where they are registered.
Macron also proposed that every EU country guarantee a minimum wage and payroll charges.
Macron said, "I believe deeply in this innovation economy," but insisted that "we must have this debate" about making taxation more fair.
Macron also proposed a shared European military intervention force and defense budget. He suggested the creation of a European intelligence academy to better fight terrorism, as well as a joint civil protection force.
He said he wants to open the French military to European soldiers and proposed that other EU member states do the same on a voluntary basis.
To deal with Europe's migration flux, Macron wants a European asylum agency and standard EU identity documents.
Macron's policies have met resistance at home, and riot police held back a few dozen protesters outside the Sorbonne.
Macron doesn't want to wait for Britain to leave the EU in 2019 to tie European economies closer together.
Macron, 39, came of age under the EU and won a strong electoral mandate this year. And he's held one-on-one meetings with 22 of the union's 27 other leaders to market his EU strategy.
Macron recalled that he won the presidential election on a pro-European platform, against anti-European, anti-immigration far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.
His biggest challenge may be the German political calendar. The outgoing government there goes into caretaker status in a few weeks and is not going to be taking any major decisions on the future of Europe, and it may take months for Merkel to form a viable coalition.
The pro-business Free Democratic Party, a key potential partner for Merkel, is against a joint budget because the party says that would result in automatic, uncontrolled money transfers from Germany to struggling eurozone partners.
In response to a question about Germany's potential reluctance to a joint budget, Macron said he is open to discussion and insisted the budget would not be based on an automatic, uncontrolled transfer of money, but rather on common projects that would be democratically approved and financed.
Merkel said Monday that she wouldn't rule anything out and that she is in touch with Macron about his plans.
"What is important to me above all is that we could use more Europe, but that must lead to more competitiveness, more jobs, simply more clout for the European Union," she told reporters in Berlin.
Macron plans to discuss his proposals with all leaders of EU member states that are interested in the integration process by the end of the year.
He then wants "transparent, free" debates involving all citizens to be organized in all EU countries early next year, with the aim of fighting euroskepticism by giving a voice to Europeans instead of imposing decisions.
Information for this article was contributed by Angela Charlton and Geir Moulson of The Associated Press.
A Section on 09/27/2017