Gozi: without European sovereignty, national sovereignty is paper sovereignty

Sandro Gozi, Renew Europe MEP and Secretary General of the European Democratic Party, spoke at two sessions of the Paris Peace Forum on 10 and 11 November 2026. The ninth edition took place at the Palais de Chaillot under the theme “From sovereignty to cooperation”. Over the two days Gozi made one argument: Europe can't protect its citizens, its prosperity or its democracy unless it gives itself the means to act together.

How far should European sovereignty go?

On 11 November, Gozi took part in the debate “Jusqu’où doit aller la souveraineté européenne ?” (How far should European sovereignty go?) on the Forum's main stage. The session was opened by Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank. The other speakers were Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Benjamin Haddad, French Minister Delegate for Europe, and Sigitas Mitkus, Lithuania's Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs. Marion Solletty, editor-in-chief of POLITICO, moderated the debate.

Paper sovereignty

Gozi started from the world as it is. “In a world where Putin uses war to impose his will, Xi Jinping methodically builds Chinese power and Donald Trump has shown that even our historic ally can let the balance of power prevail over common rules, national sovereignty without European sovereignty has become paper sovereignty,” he said.

That, he argued, is the paradox of the nationalists: “they claim to defend the sovereignty of their nations, but refuse the instruments that would allow them to actually exercise it. They talk about independence and organise our powerlessness; they call themselves sovereigntists and risk turning Europe into a continent of vassals.” His conclusion: “Today the choice is between European sovereignty and submission to external powers.”

Buy, produce and finance together

“Power requires means, investment, institutions and, above all, political will,” Gozi said. “Twenty-seven national armies do not make a European defence: we must buy together, produce together, finance together and build a genuine European pillar of NATO.”

On the economy, he said: “We have the savings, the talent and the market; what we lack is the ability to turn them into power. Let us complete the Savings and Investments Union and strengthen the international role of the euro. But you cannot build a Europe of power with the institutions of a powerless Europe.”

For Gozi, institutional reform is part of the same agenda. “In a Union of twenty-seven, unanimity too often becomes the organisation of our powerlessness: let us move to qualified majority voting in foreign policy, strengthen our common budgetary capacity and reform the Treaties when necessary.”

He closed with a call to political will. “We did not build Europe to manage our decline, but to take our destiny back into our own hands. We did not build it to endure the decisions of Washington, Beijing or Moscow, but to decide our future freely,” he said. “Our real weakness would not be a lack of resources, but a lack of will to act together. Europe must stop enduring history and regain the ambition to write it.”

The other voices on the panel

Opening the session, Lagarde focused on the economic foundations of sovereignty, in line with Gozi's call for a Savings and Investments Union. She said there was no more urgent task than building a genuine capital markets union. She announced that the digital euro would start with a pilot next year and that the political agreement was close to being concluded. She recalled that Europe had paid a heavy price for its energy dependence on Russia and must now reduce its exposure to other major powers, including in technology. Support for Ukraine, she added, is not up for debate.

Berset put the emphasis on democratic security, respect for international law and justice in a world in upheaval. On the eve of the Forum he warned that “none of the crises Europe is going through will be solved separately.”

The United Kingdom, a partner to win back

Speaking on the sidelines, Gozi called Brexit “a major disaster which went against the sense of history.” He said nationalists in Europe and in the UK “talk independence, but they organize submission.” Looking ahead to the EU-UK summit in London next week, he welcomed the commitment expected from Andy Burnham. “If Europeans want to reorganize the security architecture in Europe, we need the UK,” he said. He described the UK as a key partner in a new alliance of democracies and like-minded countries, including Canada and Japan.

Security and solidarity

On 10 November, Gozi spoke at the closed-door session “Defending Without Dividing: Parliaments Between Security and Social Contracts”. It brought together parliamentarians from Europe, Africa and Asia and was co-moderated by Carmelo Abela, Speaker of the House of Representatives of Malta, and Tlohang Sekhamane, Speaker of the National Assembly of Lesotho. Gozi took on what he called one of the most dangerous arguments in today's debate: that every euro spent on defence is a euro taken away from schools and hospitals.

“Defence is not the enemy of our social model. It is the condition for its survival,” Gozi said. For him, the real waste is not spending on European security but “spending separately on 27 versions of it.” He called for a stronger European budget, genuine own resources and Eurobonds for common strategic investments, as Europe already did with NextGenerationEU and with its support for Ukraine. “We need hospitals that can function in peace,” he said. “A Europe without security cannot protect its citizens. A Europe without solidarity cannot hold its citizens together.”

All the photos of the Forum are in the EDP album on Flickr.