Christine Lagarde: Europe seen from Normandy

Speech by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, at Fête de la Pomme in Épreville-en-Lieuvin, France

It is a particular pleasure to be here. I grew up between the port of Le Havre and the plateau of the Pays de Caux. And while my career has taken me to many other places, my attachment to Normandy has remained strong.

Maupassant wrote of the “profondes et délicates racines” that bind us to a place. Those words capture something of what it means to return to Normandy.[1]

I have never felt any contradiction in being Norman, French and European at the same time. Each of these is part of who I am, and none of them takes anything from the others.

That is partly a matter of temperament. But it is also something Europe has made possible.

The European Union was built to protect what is particular about each of its regions and to give it a larger stage. It has long preferred to invest in its regions rather than expect people to leave them.

That is why this region is a good place from which to look at Europe. It shows what integration has achieved, the challenges now facing our prosperity and the strengths on which our future can be built.

How is Europe helping Normandy build on its regional strengths to succeed across Europe and globally? And why is building Europe, rather than breaking it, the best chance of protecting what has been built here?

From regional strengths to European success

Let me start with what Europe has made possible. At the Fête de la Pomme, there is an obvious place to begin.

Calvados owes its character to this region: its orchards, the knowledge of its producers and the traditions developed over centuries.

Yet its producers, like many businesses in Normandy, depend on customers far beyond the region. Small businesses based here exported goods worth nearly 10% of the region’s GDP in 2022 – a value above the national average.[2] The United States was their largest export destination.

Europe helps strengthen their livelihoods in three ways.