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December 10, 2021 - 2:00pm
All I want for Christmas is a “powerful, sovereign” Europe, a reformed Eurozone, stronger external EU borders, progress towards an EU defence policy and, er, a minimum European wage.
President Emmanuel Macron gave a two-hour press conference yesterday introducing his plans for France’s half-year term as president of the European Union council of ministers from January. It was neither truly a press conference — it began with a 60-minute speech — nor a realistic summary of what France can expect to achieve in a six month presidency which will be disrupted by the French presidential election in April.
Macron’s performance was a tour de force in its own way. He gave an hour-long oration without notes or tele-prompter on a score of different subjects from migration to the EU budget, to defence policy, to a new era of EU African-relations, and to climate change.
It was a Christmas wish-list of everything that Macron believes should happen in the European Union over the next two decades, never mind six months from January. The EU, he said, should move from “a period of cooperation, to a period of power”. It should become powerful enough to assert its pooled “sovereignty”, militarily and economically, and not be bullied by the United States and China.
Some of his ideas — better political management and stronger external frontiers for the borderless Schengen zone — are already under discussion. Others – a jump forward in defence policy and the easing or abolition of the 3% of GDP limit on national budget deficits in the Eurozone — are deeply controversial.
No matter. There is little that can be achieved in the six months of the French presidency in any case. The French election will reduce its effective length to three months or even less.
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SubscribeMacron will win because all other candidates will be labelled ‘extreme-something’. Macron is so wishy-washy that he can’t fail. He’ll get a very few number of votes but he’ll still win. This tells you everything about France/Europe.
‘In Today’s Election the new President Macron lost by the least margin, so we wish to congratulate him on his ‘Win’.
‘Congratulations Me Macron, and it is a sad day for France and Europe, but maybe not as sad as if the other loosers had won’.
Because France will be leading the EU council of Ministers for the next 6 moths there’s increased exposure to ‘events’ that could sink a Macron bid for a second Presidency.
Well, John, Pécresse did venture criticism of the EU with the very telling (and appropriate) adjective ‘naive’ in her first speech as presidential candidate.
John re-kickstarts Macron’s re-election campaign – which really started a year ago. The choices are not good. For all its faults, the UK has not stooped so low. That underlines why voting matters, without talk of civil war beyond the figurative.
There are a lot of countries in this world, why has this site got an obsession with France? There are a lot of more important events happening elsewhere. Even within the EU France isn’t the most important, Germany is, but it doesn’t get its own “foreign correspondent”. Or the space.