The French Presidency of the Council of the EU (FPEU), which took office on 1 January, intends to focus its work in the fields of education, youth, culture and sport on measures to support young people. Sustainable development will be a cross-cutting issue.
Education. The FPEU wants to make European universities a priority and will therefore be “keen to take forward the proposals made by the Commission in its European strategy for universities”.
The Presidency will organise several events on the subject. In mid-January, an event will celebrate 35 years of Erasmus+ and, at the end of January, a University Forum for the Future of Europe will be held.
As announced by French President Emmanuel Macron on 9 December (see EUROPE 12850/17), the FPEU will seek to promote intellectual debate at European level through the establishment of an independent committee on the History of Europe and the creation of an Academy of Europe, which will bring together intellectuals from the 27 Member States in all disciplines.
A conference on the European teacher pathway will be organised on 3 and 4 March in connection with the implementation of the European Education Area by 2025.
The issue of investment in education will be the subject of a ministerial conference in mid-February, followed by a joint meeting of education and finance ministers on 4 and 5 April “to highlight the contribution of investment in education to strengthening the Union’s potential growth”.
The French Presidency also intends to lead discussions on the EU Council recommendation on education for sustainable development.
Sport. Sustainable development will also be at the heart of the FPEU’s sport priorities. It aims to focus on sport as a lever for transformation and sustainable development in order to better recognise the role of sport in achieving sustainable development goals and to commit Member States and sport movements to take greater account of sustainability and social and environmental responsibility issues in the various sporting disciplines.
A ministerial conference ‘Towards a Green Deal for Sport’ will be held on 3 March with the aim of committing to a common set of environmental and sustainability objectives for sport.
A ministerial conference on sport in childhood will be held on 7 and 8 February.
These two initiatives will go hand in hand with the continuing debate in the EU Council on the European sport model.
Youth. In the European Year of Youth 2022 (see EUROPE 12848/3), the FPEU wishes to promote youth employment initiatives in the context of the post-pandemic recovery, the mobility of apprentices, the implementation of the European Skills Agenda and the launch of the new ALMA (Aim, Learn, Master, Achieve) initiative.
It intends to act towards the establishment of a European civic service and to ensure the success of the recommendation on the mobility of young volunteers.
Here again, the French Presidency will put youth engagement and inclusion for sustainable development at the heart of its work, notably with a view to supporting youth volunteering and entrepreneurship for sustainable development and the fight against climate change. The European Youth Conference, scheduled for 24-26 January 2022 with the countries of the Trio Presidency - the Czech Republic and Sweden - will focus on this theme and will open the 9th cycle of the EU Youth Dialogue.
Culture. For the French Presidency of the EU Council, it is “essential” that culture is at the heart of the recovery in Europe.
Following on from the Media and Audiovisual Action Plan, published in December 2020 (see EUROPE 12615/2), the French Presidency wants to promote a new European strategy for cultural and creative industries in order to encourage innovation in the cultural industries sector and to support the export strategies of European cultural enterprises.
It will also focus on the development of intercultural exchanges in the European space, reflect on European cultural diversity in the digital space and underline the importance of the new challenges of the policy of preservation and enhancement of heritage at the European level.
France also wants to work on the creation of a European support fund for independent and investigative journalism.
On 7-9 February, the FPEU will organise a forum on the promotion of multilingualism as a factor of mobility and exchange, with a particular focus on digital innovation, which should facilitate translation and thus the promotion of multilingualism.
See the full programme of the French Presidency of the EU Council (in French): https://bit.ly/3EOfJcZ (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)