Eduardo González
France will assume tomorrow, January 1, 2022, the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, whose main purpose will be the development of an “agenda for a sovereign Europe” through three major objectives: digital transformation, ecological transition and social Europe.
The starting point of the French Presidency, as reported by the French Government, is the speech delivered at the Sorbonne by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, in September 2017, in which he proposed to European partners “an agenda for sovereignty, i.e. Europe’s ability to exist in today’s world by defending Europe’s values and interests.”
Since the Sorbonne speech, the President of the French Republic and the French government have been building a real “agenda for a sovereign Europe” for four years, as Macron himself explained last December 9 during a press conference. This work has resulted in a number of advances, he specified: “In economic matters, with the common debt; in ecological matters, with carbon neutrality in 2050; in defense matters, with the first common military budget; in social matters, with the revision of the directive on posted workers”. “Europe is already taking back the reins of its destiny,” said the French leader.
“This agenda for a sovereign Europe will accelerate with the French Presidency,” assured Emmanuel Macron at the aforementioned press conference. “Europe has to overcome major economic, educational, migratory or military challenges” and, therefore, “the French Presidency must be a moment of truth for the regulation and accountability of digital platforms, the carbon price on imports at European borders, minimum wages or our relationship with Africa,” he added.
“The sovereignty agenda” of the French Presidency
Therefore, and with the “sovereignty agenda” as the main reference, the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union will be based on “three emblematic and concrete texts: digital technology, climate, social”, taking into account that “there are many European laws that will be negotiated or adopted during the French Presidency”.
In digital matters, according to the EU Presidency’s presentation document, France’s priority “will be economic regulation and the empowerment of digital platforms, particularly in the face of hate speech, with legislation on services and digital markets (DSA and DMA).” As for the ecological transition, the priority “will be the creation of a carbon price at the borders of the European Union (EU) on imported products”, which “is a question of economic and ecological efficiency”. Finally, the priority in social matters will be “to establish European legislation on minimum wages”.
In addition, and with a view to the “Europe that France wants for 2030”, the French Presidency will seek to “lay the foundations for profound changes” through “a new growth and investment model for the EU and the euro area”, the defense of European values “with instruments for the protection of our democracies”, support for youth “with the extension of Erasmus”, the promotion of culture, through the creation of an “Academy of Europe” bringing together a hundred intellectuals from 27 countries and from all disciplines, and the defense of health, “with a real common research agency and major research plans, for example on Alzheimer’s disease”.
Moreover, the French Presidency “will seek to meet citizens’ expectations” through the Conference on the Future of Europe, “proposed by France in 2019 and launched on May 9, 2021 in Strasbourg by the President of the Republic, together with the Presidents of the European Parliament and the European Council and the President of the European Commission.” “The recommendations made by citizens, in France and in Europe, feed the priorities of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union,” assures the French government, which recalls that the work of the Conference “will conclude in the spring of 2022, during the French Presidency of the EU.”
