The head of state wants to prove that the EU can act as a protective force facing the chaos of the world. But the Ukrainian and Malian seizures hurt his speech.
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The scenario was almost perfect, before being surpassed by reality. Emmanuel Macron hoped to make the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), ensured by France this semester, a kind of springboard to the presidential ballot.
The exercise had to enable both to consolidate its influence on the continent and to highlight its pro-European convictions in the informal campaign committed for its re-election. With a leitmotiv: demonstrate to the French that the EU can act as a protective net in a often hostile world. Defense, Climate, Recovery, Migration, Digital, Health, His Government intends to defend the sovereignty of the old continent in all its dimensions, with the adoption of a series of texts under discussion within the twenty-seven. / p>
It was without counting with international news, its share of uncertainties and unpleasant surprises: the Ukrainian crisis and tensions with Mali come complicate this agenda and hurt the French speeches on European “power” and its strategic autonomy.
So, do the invasion threats of Russia in Ukraine play the concern for autonomy against the United States cultivated in Paris, while facing Moscow, many European capitals Remember more than ever to Washington to defend, as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), itself in full redemption six months after the debacle aroused by the precipitated withdrawal of Afghanistan troops American. “The crisis gives a new reason for the Atlantic Alliance, notes Sébastien Maillard, director of the Jacques Delors Institute, it is the difficulty of spending a proactive speech to the actions decided together.”
East-European countries
Among the French priorities, the current work in Brussels on the “strategic compass”, supposed to muscle the European defense by 2030, could make the costs of tensions around Ukraine: number of countries East-Europeans , starting with Poland, have indicated that priority was to strengthen the transatlantic link with the Biden administration, rather than the European dynamics, still embryonic in this area. In particular, they are suspicious of the creation of a rapid reaction force (5,000 men) proposed, with the support of Paris, by Josep Borrell, the High EU Representative for Foreign Affairs. Their argument: do not duplicate capabilities already put in place by NATO.
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