The 2022 French Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Date: 
9 Décembre, 2021 - 13:00 - 10 Décembre, 2021 - 11:00

CEE, CNRS, TEPSA

Conference

Sciences Po, 75007 Paris

Opening Remarks from the members of the TEPSA network in the coming French Presidency of the Council of the European Union

The conference on the 2022 French Presidency of the Council of the European Union TEPSA French Pre-Presidency Conference’ was co-organised with the Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) on 9-10 December 2021. This initiative is co-funded by the Europe for Citizens programme of the European Union. The conference has offered a unique opportunity of dialogue between academics and decision-makers from different Member States.

Recommendations from the members of the TEPSA network in the coming French Presidency of the Council of the European Union

The main message of the TEPSA Recommendations is that one of the key issues for the upcoming leadership of the Union is how to Europeanize the French Presidency – meaning, how to make sure that European priorities and solutions put forth by the French Presidency respond to wider European, and not merely French, interests and views. In the meantime, reinforcing the Franco-German alliance will also be on the table since Germany is getting ready to send its new leader to the European Council. Three areas are going to be extremely important. Defining what “strategic autonomy” should entail; the execution of the recovery fund; and converting the results of the Conference on the Future of Europe into something tangible.

EU Green Deal 

The recovery plan for Europe is supposed to contribute partly to the climate transition of the EU. A few months after its implementation this panel offers an assessment of the green dimension of Next Generation EU asking a simple question: does the Recovery and Resilience Facility genuinely tackle the environmental issue?

The Macroeconomic Capacity Of The EU 

The recovery plan for Europe has provided an unprecedented endeavor at the EU level to support European economies. This panel questions the very nature of the plan through an analysis of the content of the Recovery and Resilience plans implemented within Members state. Are they boosting economic growth? Do they participate in the structural transformation of national economies? How does the EU deal with the risk that the new facilities focus on short term expenditures?

Rule of law and democratic backsliding

The EU has been struggling to develop an effective response to democratic backsliding and rule of law violations among its member states. Can the new rule of law conditionality for EU funding help overcome the current deadlock? Which other existing tools can the EU draw on, and which remain to be developed? And how can the EU tackle democratic backsliding among candidate countries?

The Future of European Integration

The reflection on the future of Europe sees an important development in 2021with the Conference on the Future of Europe which aims at fostering a participatory democracy and inclusive reform, giving a voice to the European Citizens. The panel will offer a first opportunity to assess the results and functioning of the Conference. It will also consider the issue of differentiated integration as a possible path for the future developments of the European political project.

The EU as a Global Actor

The EU is facing a multitude of challenges in its external relations: the need to rebuild a strained transatlantic partnership with the new Biden Administration, Russia’s presence in the neighborhood and its active support for the Lukaschenko regime in Belarus, and an increasingly assertive China that is expanding its economic presence in Europe. Is the current institutional set-up sufficient to allow the EU to play a strong role internationally? How to ensure European unity when individual member states are reluctant to join common initiatives or positions? Which tools for an effective European foreign policy?

Strategic Autonomy of EU

European sovereignty, strategic autonomy and a ‘geopolitical Europe have become buzzwords in the debates on Europe’s position in the world. How to fill these words to life? Which concrete actions does the EU need to take to ensure its voice is heard both in Europe and beyond? And how can member states rally around a common vision for Europe’s strategic positioning?

Concluding Remarks at TEPSA’S

PPC Paris covered an impressive range of key issues, from the green and digital revolutions to the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Fund and economic governance. It also discussed a number of more horizontal and rather formidable challenges the EU faces. Some are internal and generate heated debates within the Conference on the future of Europe; there are divergences of views on the functioning of democracy and rule of law and different readings of what European solidarity means. Others are external, hence the importance of working on strategic autonomy, i.e. the capacity to act and to actively shape the world. While speakers recognized the difficulty of the tasks ahead, they mostly expressed cautious optimism on the capacity of the EU to live up to the challenges

Programme

Thursday 9 December 2021

1 – 2.30 pm: Words of Welcome plenary opening EU Recommendations

Amphitheater Simone Veil, 28 rue des Saints-Pères

Welcome

  • Florence Haegel, Sciences Po, CEE
  • Jim Cloos, TEPSA Secretay General

Recommendations

  • Natasha Wunsch, Sciences Po, CEE & TEPSA (moderator)
  • David Cvach, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  • TEPSA recommendation team*

2.45 – 4 pm: Session 1 of parallel panels

Next Generation EU & the Green Deal

Room 900, 9 rue de la chaise

The recovery plan for Europe is supposed to contribute partly to the climate transition of the EU. A few months after its implementation this panel offers an assessment of the green dimension of Next Generation EU asking a simple question: does the Recovery and Resilience Facility genuinely tackle the environmental issue?

Panelists:
  • Charlotte Halpern, Sciences Po, CEE & TEPSA (moderator)
  • Grégoire Chauvière Le Drian, European Investment Bank
  • Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, Jacques Delors Institute
  • Louise van Schaik, Clingendael Institute & TEPSA

Next Generation EU & the macroeconomic capacity of the EU

Room 931, 9 rue de la chaise

The recovery plan for Europe has provided an unprecedented endeavor at the EU level to support European economies. This panel questions the very nature of the plan through an analysis of the content of the Recovery and Resilience plans implemented within Members state. Are they boosting economic growth? Do they participate to the structural transformation of national economies? How does the EU deal with the risk that the new facilities focus on short terms expenditures?

Panelists:
  • Michele Chang, College of Europe (moderator) & TEPSA
  • Diane Fromage, Sciences Po, Law School
  • Edouard Chrétien, French minister of Economy and Finances
  • Francesco Saraceno, Sciences Po, OFCE

Rule of law and democratic backsliding

Room 933, 9 rue de la chaise

The EU has been struggling to develop an effective response to democratic backsliding and rule of law violations among its member states. Can the new rule of law conditionality for EU funding help overcome the current deadlock? Which other existing tools can the EU draw on, and which remain to be developed? And how can the EU tackle democratic backsliding among candidate countries?

Panelists:
  • Natasha Wunsch, Sciences Po, CEE & TEPSA (moderator)
  • Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, Member of the European Parliament
  • Petr Kratochvíl, Institute of International Relations Prague & TEPSA
  • Lucia Mokrá, Comenius University Bratislava & TEPSA Chairperson
  • Paul Schmidt, OEGFE Austria & TEPSA

4.15 – 5.30 pm: Session 2 of parallel panels

The future of European integration

Room 900, 9 rue de la chaise

The reflection on the future of Europe sees an important development in 2021with the Conference on the Future of Europe which aims at fostering a participatory democracy and inclusive reform, giving a voice to the European Citizens. The panel will offer a first opportunity to assess the results and functioning of the Conference. It will also consider the issue of differentiated integration as a possible path for the future developments of the European political project.

Panelists:
  • Olivier Costa, Sciences Po, CEVIPOF, CNRS (moderator)
  • Ivo Belet, Member of Cabinet of Vice-President Dubravka Šuica, Member of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography
  • Frank Schimmelfennig, Center for Comparative and International Studies at ETH Zurich & TEPSA
  • Donald Wertlen, IESIR, Slovakia

The EU as a Global Actor

Room 933, 9 rue de la chaise

The EU is facing a multitude of challenges in its external relations: the need to rebuild a strained transatlantic partnership with the new Biden Administration, Russia’s presence in the neighborhood and its active support for the Lukaschenko regime in Belarus, and an increasingly assertive China that is expanding its economic presence in Europe. Is the current institutional set-up sufficient to allow the EU to play a strong role internationally? How to ensure European unity when individual member states are reluctant to join common initiatives or positions? Which tools for an effective European foreign policy?

Panelists:
  • Jim Cloos, TEPSA Secretay General (moderator)
  • Magdalena Gora, Jagiellonian University & TEPSA
  • Christian Lequesne, Sciences Po, CERI
  • Nicoletta Pirozzi, Istituto Affari Internazionali & TEPSA

Friday 10, December 2021

9 – 10.45 am: Round Table The Strategic Autonomy of Europe

Amphitheater Simone Veil, 28 rue des Saints-Pères

‘European sovereignty,’ ‘strategic autonomy’ and a ‘geopolitical Europe’ have become buzzwords in the debates on Europe’s position in the world. How to fill these words to life? Which concrete actions does the EU need to take to ensure its voice is heard both in Europe and beyond? And how can member states rally around a common vision for Europe’s strategic positioning?

Panelists:
  • Cornelia Woll, Sciences Po, CEE & MaxPo and TEPSA (Moderator)
  • Jim Cloos, TEPSA Secretary General
  • Elvire Fabry, Jacques Delors Institute
  • Roderick Parkes, DGAP & TEPSA
  • Cyril Piquemal, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  • Pierre Vimont, Carnegie Europe

10.45 – 11 am: Concluding remarks

Amphitheater Simone Veil, 28 rue des Saints-Pères

  • Lucia Mokrà, TEPSA Chairperson
  • Cyril Piquemal, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  • Olivier Rozenberg, Sciences Po, CEE & TEPSA 

Local team: Linda Amrani, Olivier Rozenberg, Natasha Wunsch

Compulsory registration

For more information: contact.cee@sciencespo.fr

To know more

*Recommendations from members of the TEPSA Network to the French Presidency

On 9 December 2021, the TEPSA Recommendations to the incoming French Presidency of the Council of the EU were presented to David Cvach.

On the occasion of TEPSA’s French Pre-Presidency Conference, the TEPSA Recommendations to the upcoming French Presidency of the Council of the European Union were formally presented to David Cvach from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Dr. Nicoletta Pirozzi (IAI, Italy), Dr. Funda Tekin (IEP, Germany), and Dr. Ilke Toygür (Elcano, Spain).

The main message of the TEPSA Recommendations is that one of the key issues for the upcoming leadership of the Union is how to Europeanize the French Presidency – meaning, how to make sure that European priorities and solutions put forth by the French Presidency respond to wider European, and not merely French, interests and views. In the meantime, reinforcing the Franco-German alliance will also be on the table since Germany is getting ready to send its new leader to the European Council. Three areas are going to be extremely important. Defining what “strategic autonomy” should entail; the execution of the recovery fund; and converting the results of the Conference on the Future of Europe into something tangible.

Further recommendations were discussed with researchers from the TEPSA Network. Francesco Saraceno (Sciences Po OFCE) calls on the French Presidency to create a central fiscal capacity to build a Europe better equipped to deal with future challenges; Héctor Sánchez Margalef (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs & TEPSA) urges the French Presidency to enhance the EU’s influence in the Southern neighbourhood and adjacent regions (Sahel, Horn of Africa, Arabian Peninsula) as well as bringing the Mediterranean higher on the EU agenda. Finally, Roderick Parkes (German Council on Foreign Policy & TEPSA) calls on the French Presidency to focus on transforming the EU into a military-strategic actor, since the Strategic Compass is due to be endorsed by the European Council in March Next year.

Upon reading the Recommendations, Mr Cvach commented: We don't want to use our Presidency to push our agenda down the throats of the other Member States. But Europe is about cooperation, about taking a higher view than the national interest […] your TEPSA Recommendations may actually prove to be followed by the French Presidency. Jim Cloos, Secretary-General of TEPSA encouraged the French Presidency to face challenges head-on: "You have to hope for the best, and then take what comes".

Contributions:

  • How to Europeanize the French Presidency?, by Nicoletta Pirozzi (Istituto Affari Internazionali); Funda Tekin (Institut für Europäische Politik); Ilke Toygür (Real Instituto Elcano).
  • Strategic Compass: Petals worth adding to its rose, by Serafine Dinkel, Roderick Parkes and Florence Schimmel (German Council on Foreign Relations).
  • What fiscal rule is optimal depends on the existence of a central fiscal capacity, by Francesco Saraceno (Sciences Po OFCE).
  • The EU needs to implement swiftly the “Fit for 55” agenda to tackle the climate crisis, by Marco Siddi (Finnish Institute of International Affairs).
  • The broader Mediterranean Agenda: Inclusivity, Strategic Autonomy and Social Agenda, by Eduard Soler i Lecha, Elisa Menéndez López and Héctor Sánchez Margalef (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs).

The introduction to these recommendations have been summarised by the TEPSA Recommendations team and published as an opinion article in EUObserver. You can read the op-ed here.

Meet the speakers (PDF 49 Ko)

Read Jim Cloos' conclusions on the conference

A Sciences Po article on the panel « L'UE en tant qu'acteur mondial » (In French)

Supported by

co-funded by the Eurpe for Citizens programme of the EU, Integrating Diversity in the EU, Parlement européen Bureau de liaison en France, This project has received funding from the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N° 822304

Picture: patrice6000_shutterstock

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