Schuman Fondation: The Challenges of the French Presidency of the Council
12 January 2022
In its presidency programme, France identifies three main objectives: a more sovereign Europe, a new European model for growth, a humane Europe.
On 1 January, France took over the presidency
of the Council of the European Union for six months. The exercise,
which mainly consists of leading meetings of European ministers, is also
an opportunity for the country temporarily in charge to convey its
priorities and even a political vision for Europe. In this respect, the
French Presidency comes at a particular time for the European Union, for
France and for its President, Emmanuel Macron.
Hard hit by the pandemic, the European Union is both emerging from the
crisis and adapting to the global changes accelerated by the crisis.
France, for its part, is preparing for a major political event, the
presidential election in April, followed by the legislative elections in
June. For Emmanuel Macron, the French Presidency of the Council will
bring to a close a presidential term of office that has focused strongly
on European issues, almost five years after his speech at the Sorbonne.
Although France's mandate is often referred to as the 'French Presidency
of the European Union' (FPEU) for the sake of convenience, it is in
fact the Presidency of the Council of the Union, the institution that
represents the Member States within the 'institutional triangle' formed
with the Commission and the Parliament. The European Council, which
brings together the Heads of State and Government, has a permanent
President, the former Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. For
France, this is the thirteenth Presidency of the Council, the first
having taken place in 1959.
The Presidency is responsible for planning and chairing Council meetings in 9 of its 10 ministerial configurations[1]
and its preparatory bodies at expert and ambassadorial level, as well
as organising various formal and informal meetings in Brussels and in
the country holding the Presidency. More than 400 events are planned in
France, including 19 informal meetings of European ministers. The
Presidency is also responsible for representing the Council in relations
with the other EU institutions, in particular the Commission, and the
Parliament, with which it is co-legislator and must agree to adopt
European laws.
Each six-monthly presidency is part of a 'trio' of presidencies, usually
comprising one large Member State and two smaller ones, all from a
different region of the Union. The three states publish a joint
programme for the next 18 months to ensure continuity in the Council's
work. Each state publishes its six-monthly presidency programme, in
which it highlights the issues and projects it wishes to prioritise
among the current dossiers. The trio of France is completed by the Czech
Republic and Sweden, which will hold the Presidency of the Council in
the second half of 2022 and the first half of 2023 respectively.
In their programme,
the three countries have set themselves the priority of protecting
citizens and freedoms, promoting a new growth and investment model for
Europe, building a greener, more socially equitable Europe that protects
the health of Europeans, and a global Europe that is a world player. In
its presidency programme, France identifies three main objectives: a more sovereign Europe, a new European model for growth, a humane Europe.
Each trio's programme is in line with the programme of the previous one.
All are developed within the framework of the strategic agenda defined
by the European Council every five years (the present programme
was adopted in 2019), in conjunction with the Commission's annual work
programme, which is the 'operational' transcription of the programme.
The Presidency of the Council is therefore a highly structured
institutional exercise, serving common objectives defined in advance,
with a view to short, medium and long-term action. The core of its
activity is legislative, since it is mainly a matter of ensuring that
proposals for directives, regulations or decisions presented by the
Commission are taken forward or completed.
In the complex machinery of the European institutions, the Council
Presidency is the equal of the Presidency of the Commission, the
institution that has the exclusive right of legislative initiative, and
the Presidency of the Parliament, the institution that shares the
legislative and budgetary functions of the Union with the Council. But
the political weight of the Member States and the historical legitimacy
of their representatives also give the Council Presidency a strong
symbolic dimension which the leaders of the countries holding it can use
to broaden its scope. The institutional function is thus coupled with a
programmatic function intended to leave a more or less strong political
mark on the development of the Union. By declaring on 9 December that,
"In essence, we have to define our shared vision for Europe in 2030,"
Emmanuel Macron openly claims this function for the FPEU more than other
leaders.
This characteristic is supported by the fact that the country holding
the presidency, in the person of its permanent representative who chairs
the Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper), plays a major role
in the preparation of the meetings of the European Council, the supreme
political body of the Union which defines its main orientations. It can
also play a diplomatic role, as Coreper prepares the meetings of the
Foreign Affairs Council, or through the Political and Security Committee
which it chairs.
The FPEU must be analysed from this dual perspective, which makes it
possible to distinguish the issues at stake in a presidency, between
what relates to the strict institutional function and what comes from
the political dimension, in order to better evaluate its action and
results.
Schuman Fondation
© Fondation Robert Schuman
