French president Emmanuel Macron made a wide-ranging speech on his vision for the future of the European Union Tuesday, in a landmark event which signifies the acceptance of the Union’s main players of an accelerated move towards a European State, with Britain being dragged along.

In comments that come just months after the de facto leader of the EU Angela Merkel said she would be willing to accept a common European budget and a Europe-wide finance minister, Macron — who was ridiculed at the start of his presidency for saying he wished to rule as Roman God Jupiter — said he wanted to complete the monetary union project, started with the launch of the Euro single currency in 1999.

Moves towards full monetary union and a single military have been held up for years by British opposition, but now the United Kingdom has started to withdraw from such discussions France and Germany appear to be finding a common voice on the matters.

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