Eurozone rules, which limit a country’s public deficit to 3 percent of GDP, are “outdated” in a Europe that must “speed up” if it wants to avoid “getting off the highway,” Emmanuel Macron in an interview published today by the Financial Times.

“This financial and monetary framework in which we live is obsolete,” the French president told the British financial daily.

“For Europe, this is a moment of acceleration and realisation. Because there is no longer a choice. Because it is the last toll. Then, it’s the exit from the motorway,” he insisted.

The Stability and Growth Pact, which binds countries whose currency is the euro, requires states to limit their public deficits to 3 percent except in exceptional circumstances.

In this interview, Emmanuel Macron once again calls for the European Union to obtain “innovative” financing solutions, for example with new joint loans as during the Covid-19 pandemic, to invest in defence, artificial intelligence or the energy transition.

While Germany is strongly opposed to such a move, the French president says he hopes the position will evolve after the German parliamentary elections on February 23, according to the newspaper.

The French head of state is also calling, according to the Financial Times, for a review of some EU regulations that he considers costly and unrealistic, such as possible fines on car manufacturers that do not respect electric vehicle sales quotas, which he calls “crazy.”