At the Sorbonne University on Tuesday 26 September, France's President Emmanuel Macron outlined his vision of a sovereign and protecting European Union solidarity.
“The days of France making proposals in Europe are back”, Macron said, distancing himself from the rather cool attitude shown by France towards European issues since the no vote in the French referendum on the draft Constitutional Treaty of May 2005 (our translation throughout).
The French president, who firmly believes that the responsibility and legitimacy of revising the European project lie with the people, called for democratic conventions to be organised in 2018 in the favourable countries, to decide on the main priorities for action, which will then be put to the citizens for their approval in the European elections of spring 2019. At the same time, a “group for the re-founding of Europe”, made up of representatives of member states and involving the European institutions, may also work on specific measures up to summer 2018.
Not drawing any lines in the sand, the French president spoke of the European Union to be based, by 2024, on two pillars: - democracy and the rule of law; - a single market under simplified rules and capable of protecting consumers, businesses and workers.
This union, which will welcome the Balkan states once they are ready to join, will allow states wishing to do so to create a vanguard in certain areas, whilst others may express their right to differentiation. There may even be a place for the United Kingdom once again. And, in 2024, half of all MEPs would be elected on transnational lists and the Commission would be scaled down to 15 members.
To make this ambition a reality, Macron has proposed a renewed partnership with Germany to be enshrined in a new Élysée treaty, to be signed sometime after January 2018.
The six keys to sovereignty
“Europe is too weak, too slow, too inefficient, but only it can give us the capacity for action”, Macron said, criticising both proponents of laissez-faire, who depict Europe as solely responsible for political immobilisation, and nationalists, who believe that the only solution is to look inwards. To respond to international challenges such as climate change and terrorism, he proposed immediately to create a “new European sovereignty” around the following six key areas: security, migration, ecological transition, agriculture, the digital transition, economic and monetary union.
The French president called for a European intervention force to be set in place by 2020. “At the start of the next decade, Europe must have its own common intervention force, a common budget and a common doctrine of action”, he said in his address. In the meantime, Macron is calling for a kind of military Erasmus scheme. He proposed that the national armies welcome soldiers from all European countries to “participate, as far upstream as possible, in our anticipation, intelligence, planning and operational support work”. The French army is to launch such an initiative, although exchanges of soldiers between European armies already exist and the EU even has its own European defence and security college.
Regarding the migration challenge, Europe must be in a position to both protect its external borders and welcome refugees entitled to protection, whilst also quickly sending back migrants not eligible for asylum, the French president argued. He called for the construction of a common border space, for instance creating a European asylum system and a European border police force. Additionally, it will be necessary to finance a broad training and integration programme for refugees, he added. Observing that the strongest borders will not stop the phenomenon of migration, he also called for a voluntary development policy in the Mediterranean and Africa, using resources that may come from a financial transactions tax.
The third area is ecological transformation. Calling for Europe to be in the vanguard in this area, radical changes are necessary in the transport, housing and industrial sectors, the French president said. In five or ten years' time, “we have to be able to put a fair price on carbon” and one that is high enough – at least €25 or €30 per tonne – to accompany these changes in the regions, he said. He went on to call for a carbon tax on the borders of the EU, to ensure a level playing field with rival industries in third countries, and for increased energy interconnections between the member states. Furthermore, in order to “cross Europe without damaging it”, Macron calls for a new industrial programme to support clean vehicles and the deployment of infrastructure.
Agriculture is another priority area for European work, in the view of the French president. Calling for an end to the “taboo” that the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) has become, he would like the very purpose of this policy to be rethought, in order to genuinely guarantee food security and sovereignty in Europe. He feels that the CAP needs to protect European farmers from the uncertainty of the market and reinforce consumers' confidence in products used every day (see other article). Also touching upon the controversial issue of glyphosate, he called for “more transparent and independent” scientific assessments of the risks of certain products.
The French president identified the rise of the digital economy as the fifth key to European sovereignty. In order for the EU to become a digital champion, he proposed the creation of a “European breakthrough innovation agency”, to finance research into artificial intelligence. This agency will also be responsible for protecting individual freedoms and the economic data of businesses.
Macron also referred to the question of the taxation of the innovation economy and to a French initiative aiming to tax the major global digital enterprises ('GAFA') (see EUROPE 11864). He called for the “value generated to be taxed where it is created”, a system that will be fair, as all countries will benefit from it. Macron also called for fair remuneration for copyright, which has been impacted by the new digital economy. These subjects will certainly be on the agenda of the informal European summit to be held in Tallinn on Friday 29 September.
The sixth key is economic and monetary union. Hailing back into his speech in Athens (see EUROPE 11858), Macron called for more convergence and stability within the eurozone, through reinforced coordination of economic policies and the creation of a common eurozone budget. This budget could, for instance, be financed through European digital or environmental taxes or out of corporate taxation. The last of these should also, he said, be the subject of convergence between the various member states, by creating a bracket that would have to be respected as a condition for access to European funding.
He also spoke of the creation of the post of European economy and finance minister of the eurozone, a “common minister, who would be subject to strong parliamentary control”. Macron had raised this idea during his election campaign, and it won the praise of the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker (see EUROPE 11861) and of the commissioner for economic and financial affairs, Pierre Moscovici (see EUROPE 11854).
What ultimately remains is what unites people
Macron believes that overhauling the European project will help to unite the populations of the continent and its young people in particular.
In 2024, young people under the age of 25 should be able to speak two European languages and have spent six months in another member state, whether they are students or apprentices. His other proposals include the creation of a network of European universities and European harmonisation of secondary-level education cycles, along the lines of the Bologna process for the university level.
In the social domain, the key measure on which an agreement is called for by October is the revision of the 'posted workers' directive (see EUROPE 11868). Beyond this, Macron calls for a genuine convergence of social standards, for instance through the creation of a solidarity fund to benefit the poorer countries and to be fed into out of social security contributions. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion, Camille-Cerise Gessant and Lucas Tripoteau)