Mark Rutte, prime minister of the Netherlands | John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images Dutch PM: Forget the Brits, here’s a real vision for Europe Mark Rutte says it not all about France and Germany.

As Europe waited for a speech in London about the U.K.'s future outside the EU, the Dutch prime minister was speaking in Berlin about the bloc's future without Britain.

"You had a choice today. You could have listened to a speech in the U.K. about a future without Europe. Or a speech in Berlin by someone who believes in Europe and wants to talk about the best way to move forward with Europe," Mark Rutte said minutes before Theresa May was due to speak on Britain's future. (Rutte spoke in English, to hammer home the point).

Rutte addressed Brexit head-on in his speech at the Bertelsmann Stiftung, a think tank in Berlin, saying the British exit gave a "new intensity and energy to the debate about Europe."

"Brexit has underlined that EU membership is a conscious choice," which has raised questions on how the bloc should move forward, he added.

"It’s not only about Macron and Merkel, but about how we go forward collectively" — Mark Rutte

Rutte then outlined his vision for how that should happen, saying the EU is not "an unstoppable train speeding towards federalism" and rejecting suggestions that France and Germany are the only EU countries that really matter.

“We have to acknowledge that there will always be a strong bond between France and Germany," he said. "This always has a huge symbolic impact. But at the same time, it’s not a French-German Europe.

“They have all the right to work together. And we have to make sure that we create our own alliances. With them and others. It’s not only about Macron and Merkel, but about how we go forward collectively.”

This was Rutte's first major speech about Europe since he became prime minister in 2010. His third government, a four-party center-right coalition, took office in October last year. Rutte, leader of the liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the longest-serving liberal head of government in Europe, said he wanted to seize the moment ahead of Sunday's general election in Italy and before this month's summit of EU leaders, to give his country's perspective on the EU agenda.

For the Dutch, the main points on Europe's future are threefold, Rutte said: The EU needs to deliver on its basic promises; Brussels serves the member countries, not the other way around; and a deal is a deal.

He listed nine proposals he said would help solve cross-border challenges that all EU countries face, and that would deliver greater prosperity, security, stability and strong rule of law across the Union. This can only happen if countries maintain their own identity, the prime minister said.

They included making Europe's services market truly open, and increasing cooperation to fight cross-border fraud and abuse. He also called for converting the European Stability Mechanism (the eurozone's bailout arm) into a European Monetary Fund, and encouraged member countries to reform and modernize their economies.

"Everyone should keep their own house in order. And if there is genuinely no alternative, good neighbors help each other. But we should do things in that order. European funds are a last resort, not first aid," he said.

He also called for a quick agreement on a new common European asylum system that would force countries to share responsibility for taking in migrants, and said European countries should accept that the U.K. is leaving the EU and the bloc's budget will therefore be smaller.

Rutte challenged the idea of a more federal Europe late last year in a speech at the annual congress of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, criticizing French President Emmanuel Macron’s vision of a closer Europe and saying that “more integration” is not the answer to the EU’s problems.

But he stressed in his speech on Friday that centrist parties will have to prove that cooperation adds value. "If we don’t deliver on that basic promise of the EU, people will start believing the false promises and pipe dreams of the political extremes," Rutte said.