French President Emmanuel Macron admitted on Sunday that the European nations have so far failed to provide a viable alternative to the US dollar, and are excessively dependent on the American currency.

In an interview with CNN, the French president said currently Europe didn’t have ‘a clear alternative’ to the dollar because “de-facto there is an international extraterritoriality of the dollar due to its strength”.

“Until now, we fail to make the euro as strong as the dollar. We made a great job during the past years but it’s not yet sufficient,” he said, when asked whether the EU will come up with a response to the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in terms of currency.

Macron suggested that European corporations and entities were deeply dependent on the US dollar.

“This is an issue of sovereignty for me. So that’s why I want us to work very closely with our financial institutions, at the European levels and with all the partners, in order to build a capacity to be less dependent from the dollar,” he told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.

Macron meanwhile, elaborated that such an alternative was not intended to rival the dollar, but was necessary for “the stability of the global order”:

“It doesn’t mean to be opponents – but I think for the stability of the global order, you’ll need a strong currency like [the] dollar, but you need some alternatives. Euro has to be one of these alternatives, which means we have to better enhance our financial structures and the financing of our players at the euro-zone level.”

Source: Sputnik