The French president called for more European unity, i.a. with the budget and through a harmonised tax system, saying further integration would end the sluggishness threatening Europe's future.
Hollande said a more politically integrated EU would be key to his next years in office as he tries to dig France out of its slump and convince the public that he can still influence Brussels. The move came as he attempted to use a set-piece press conference to stem growing pessimism in France which has fallen back into recession and is facing record unemployment, a stagnant economy, industrial decline and a population increasingly struggling to make ends meet.
Hollande said the notion of the 17-country eurozone integrating more would end the sluggishness threatening Europe's future. But the proposal was likely to be dismissed outright in Germany. "If Europe does not advance, it will fall or even be wiped off the world map", Hollande said. "My duty is to bring Europe out of its lethargy, to reduce people's disenchantment with it."
Brussels has given Paris two more years to bring its budget deficit below the EU limit, but in return it is demanding serious reform of the French welfare state and high public spending. Hollande stressed he would continue with what he has euphemistically called "budgetary seriousness" – but not austerity – reducing state spending but without swinging the axe on public services. Hollande said he would protect the French welfare state but it had to be transformed in order to survive.
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