French President Emmanuel Macron has outlined his vision for Europe's future in an impassioned plea published in newspapers in each of the 28 member states, urging reform of the passport-free Schengen area and a new agency "for the protection of democracies", ahead of European elections in May.
In an opinion piece, to be published by several top European newspapers including Le Monde, Die Welt, The Guardian, El Pais and Corriere della Serra, Macron also renewed his call for greater security cooperation and stressed the need for a common asylum policy to deal with the migrant crisis.
Emmanuel Macron: Dear Europe, Brexit is a lesson for all of us: it’s time for renewal https://t.co/6Yv79vcS0e
The Guardian (@guardian) March 4, 2019
"Never since the Second World War has Europe been so necessary. And yet never has Europe been in such a danger," Macron said, in what many see as the start of his own campaign for the May European Parliament elections.
The president listed a series of initiatives the EU could take both to defend itself and to adhere more closely to its core values.
"A European agency for the protection of democracies would provide European experts to each member state to protect its electoral process against cyber-attacks and manipulation," he suggested.
Financing European political parties from abroad should also be banned, while rules should be agreed on banning "hateful and violent speeches from the internet", he added.
In January, Macron had suggested that the Brexit campaign -- which saw Britain vote to leave the EU -- was "manipulated from the exterior by a lot of what we call fake news".
