Emmanuel Macron has presented a cascade of initiatives to overhaul the EU, urging the bloc to be “bold” against the populist threat as he gave the most integrationist speech by a French leader since the creation of the euro.

Among the French president’s numerous proposals were the creation of a “military intervention force” and a common military budget by 2020, a European agency to deal with counter-terrorism intelligence and another to drive “radical innovation” in the economy.

“The challenge is vital: the sea walls behind which Europe has thrived have gone,” he told students in a long speech at the Sorbonne university in Paris. “We need to trace the only path ensuring our future; it is the refoundation of a sovereign, united and democratic Europe.”