Several leading European figures gathered on Thursday 2 December at the European Parliament seat in Strasbourg to pay tribute to Valéry Giscard d Estaing, who died at the age of 94 on 2 December 2020, a year ago today (see EUROPE 12615/6).
The European institutions were represented by their respective presidents: Charles Michel for the European Council, Ursula von der Leyen for the European Commission and David Sassoli for the European Parliament. All three spoke, as did the German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and the French President, Emmanuel Macron, who closed the speeches.
The Franco-German partnership was thus embodied on the podium after having been evoked several times through the friendship that bound Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.
Building on the “major decisions” of this “great European”, the former French president - he worked in particular for the election of the European Parliament by universal suffrage, the establishment of European summits and the setting up of monetary cooperation in Europe, which was the first step towards the creation of the euro - Emmanuel Macron spoke out in favour of very political initiatives.
He announced his support for “the idea of transnational lists to unify the European demos, as well as the creation of a parliamentary right of initiative for the European Parliament”, a point mentioned in the governmental agreement of the new coalition (SPD-Greens-FDP) which will take office in Germany in December.
The idea of introducing transnational lists for the election of MEPs had already been put forward, without success, by the French president for the 2019 elections. At the time, he opposed the ‘Spitzenkandidat’ process.
When Ursula von der Leyen took over as head of the Commission in the same year, she proposed to continue thinking about this proposal for the 2024 elections. This topic is also being addressed in the context of the Conference on the Future of Europe. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)