The fallacy which is: That if you don't do business in the EU, you are missing out on 22%-25% GDP of the worlds economy.
For public and almost-public organizations, there is a regulation: you can communicate in exactly one language (French) or at least three languages (usually these will be English and German).
On the other hand, trying to sell to the average French person will require a French translation, and the same is probably true for most other EU countries if you wish to improve your chances ("have a translation in that language" is likely in the top 5 of improvement suggestions for a new market). 300 million people sharing the same language is a boon, especially for B2C or B2SMB.
Since I mostly consume english, US-centric media, I wonder how high the marketing effect even outside the US is for services that launch in the US first.
In fact it's better to sell outside the EU as those customers don't have to pay VAT so you have better margins or can sell it cheaper.
And the finance thing has nothing to do with Macron (or Merkel or May or any other European leader). European VCs don't speculate on potential unicorns like the US ones do. It's a different risk appetite, what are EU leaders supposed to do?