Macron calls for common EU debt to finance innovation

French President Emanuel Macron has called for the EU to issue common debt to finance innovation.

Speaking at an industrial summit in Antwerp on 11/02/2026, Macron said: "The EU is under-indebted compared with the United States and China. In a moment of a technological investment race, failing to use this borrowing capacity is a profound mistake."

He said the EU needed around €1.2 trillion per year in public and private investment for green and digital technologies, defence and security. "Now is the time to launch a common borrowing capacity for these future expenditures, future-oriented eurobonds," he said.

While the EU issued debt to help member states recover from the economic damage caused by the Covid pandemic, subsequent calls to use the mechanism again for other purposes have met strong resistance from debt-averse countries led by Germany and including the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland.

Macron was speaking before an informal meeting of EU leaders at Alden Biesen in eastern Belgium, called to address the EU’s lack of competitiveness and gaps in its single market for goods…