'Wake up', Macron will tell Europe in major pre-Brexit speech: sources

Emmanuel Macron will describe Brexit as a wake-up call in a speech this month in which he will outline how Europe must be more assertive in the face of rival world powers, sources close to the French president said.

His words are intended as a “warning shot” for a continent unable to project power and defend itself, said aides who described the speech as Macron’s most important since he spoke at the Sorbonne University in Paris in September 2017 urging fundamental reform of the European Union.

“This is a critical time,” a source close to Macron told Reuters. “If we Europeans don’t want to have other Brexits and become trapped in a naive defense of status quo, we have to wake up.”

Macron’s speech coincides with rising tensions in the West, which has been shaken by U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies and Britain’s departure from the EU. A more assertive China and Russia also pose major challenges.

Although Macron will use Britain’s planned departure from the EU on March 29 as the main impetus for his speech, the aim is not to offer an initiative to unblock the negotiating stalemate between London and Brussels, the source said.

The date and location of the speech have not yet been fixed.

“He won’t comment on the negotiation, or offer some kind of ‘Macron plan’ to fix the problem. The idea is to draw the lessons from Brexit,” the source said.