France holds the presidency of the EU Council in the first half of the year. The agenda and goals of Paris for recovery and consolidation of the EU are ambitious. H.E. Gaël Veyssière Ambassador of the Republic of France to Republic of Croatia for Diplomacy& Commerce talks about concrete plans and priorities during the French Presidency. “Recovery, strength and a sense of belonging” is France’s motto as it assumes presidency of the Council of EU. The country performed this duty last in 2008, but new challenges have appeared before Europe since then.
NOTE: The interview was conducted before the war in Ukraine.
1.What are the main priorities ofthe Paris administration?
— A lot of increased and sometimes new challenges have built up over the last years: increasing threats on our democratic institutions, our values and our economies from external actors; a major economic, social and health crisis created by the COVID19 pandemic; the climate and environmental situation has become more urgent to tackle than ever and this calls for transformation of our economies, along with new digital technologies; populism has contributed in some countries to question the rule of law and in all countries to deepen a sense of estrangement from EU institutions among its citizens. This is what we want to address in our role of president of the Council of EU ministers for the next months: “recovery”, to build back our economies in a greener, smarter way, “strength” because we need to give the EU the necessary tools to stand for its interests and its values in a competitive, sometimes brutal global reality; “sense of belonging” because that we should contribute to reviving the links between the EU, its values, our common culture and history and the people everywhere in Europe.
2. France is committed to increasing the effectiveness of Schengen and to reforming Schengen. In what way and what does this mean, and also what is your stand on Croatia joining Schengen?
— We have to do precisely those two things: reform Schengen and enlarge it to Croatia. Schengen has been facing tough times in recent years, especially with the pandemic, with a continued flow of illegal migrations, an insufficient degree of solidarity between Member States, sometimes a lack of implementation of our common rules. The current situation, which paves the way for the multiplication of controls inside Schengen itself, is not satisfactory. We have to rebuild trust in the Schengen area and mechanisms, to ensure an improved political governance by establishing regular meetings between Schengen Ministers of Interior. The President of the French Republic raised these issues with the 27 ministers of Interior in Tourcoing a few days ago, and we hope that the first “Schengen Council” will be held on 3rd March. Meanwhile, we also have to reform the evaluation system of Schengen, which is key for its credibility, and to finalise the reform of the EU asylum policy. The reform is in the best interest of Croatia too. As President Macron said during his visit to Croatia, we support fully Croatia’s accession to Schengen, because we know that you are a very serious partner in terms of border control and you can bring a very valuable and positive contribution.
3. With the reform of Schengen,France’s goal is also the Strategic Compass which should be adopted in March. What is this about?
— It is an ambitious document, a strategy paper where the EU will define the concept of its sovereignty and of its global interests, identify potential threats but also tools to defend itself and its sovereignty (including by reinforcing European defence industry, joint exercises, etc.). It is about defence of course, but we should also think more broadly about our strategic interests, including in economic terms: which critical technologies, added value chains do we have to maintain in Europe? This is an essential part
of our work on “strength”, and the current events along the Russia/ Ukraine border prove how important it is for the EU to have a clear, common strategic roadmap in order for our voice to be heard. Many efforts have been made in that direction under the previous presidencies, including introducing a mechanism for a more effective screening of foreign investments. What we must do now with the compass is to take a big step further, towards European strategic autonomy, while of course developing the cooperation between the EU and NATO.
4. EU’s goal is not only the recovery from Covid-19, but also to transfer to “green and digital economy”. Do you think that something tangible can be done within 6 months, and how ready is the EU for the numerous reforms that France stands for?
— Transition to green and digital economy is indeed a longterm strategy, and the EU has been working on these issues for some time already. This is the very aim of the national recovery plans, which will benefit from EU funds that have been raised in common on financial markets (for the first time in our history): for the record, Croatia’s recovery plan will be supported by €6.3 billion of EU grants with 40.3% of the plan supporting climate objectives and 20.4% of the plan fostering the digital transition. What we want to achieve as a presidency is to help Member States in implementing these plans fully and also to make headways on the “Fit for 55” legislative package, which sets out a detailed vision of Europe’s new climate ambitions for 2030 in all economic sectors: we want to see a revision of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and the implementation of a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism in order to protect the EU from unfair competition based on non-environmentally-friendly practices. We will also keep the pace of ongoing EU discussions on measures to preserve biodiversity; to promote a more circular and sustainable economy; and to reduce the impact of pollution on the environment and health.
5.Over the past period, France opposed the Union’s expansion to the Western Balkans. What is Paris’ position on that matter now, because France’s President Emmanuel Macron himself announced that in June, a conference on Western Balkans will be held, stating that “more than neighbours, the Balkans are at the heart of Europe”?
— France has not been opposed to the Western Balkans’ European perspective: on the contrary, France was responsible for initiating the first EU-Western Balkans summit in 2000, under French presidency of the EU at that time, and and we wanted it to happen in Zagreb, when Croatia was still far from joining the Union Under Croatian presidency, France and Croatia made a very important move together to reform the enlargement policy, in order for this policy to be more financially supportive and more responsive to the political context . This enabled the principle decision in the second Zagreb Summit to open negotiations with Albania and Northern Macedonia, which was a very significant success. We would have liked these negotiations to start months ago and we hope that the discussions between Bulgaria and Northern Macedonia will enable this soon. We also have a stronger national focus on this region, with a new national strategy for the Western Balkans and we are investing more in terms of economic, security and defence cooperation, as well as in political dialogue, because we believe in the strategic importance of the region for the whole European continent, for its economy but also its security. This upcoming conference should not just be a new declaration of principles on the Western Balkans’ membership prospects: we want to work concretely on investments that can make a difference for the region, now and for the years to come. I am happy that the Czech presidency will continue this effort.
6. How do you rate the cooperation and relations between France and Croatia, and how much has the sale of “Rafale” affected the strengthening of this cooperation?
— Our relations have always been excellent, but the historical high-level visits to Croatia last year of our minister of Foreign Affairs and of our President, for the first official visit ever at this level, demonstrate that we are committed, now more than ever, to have an in-depth cooperation with Croatia in all aspects. The Rafale contract is a showcase for this strategic partnership cooperation we want to build: it is, of course, an important aspect because it entails a lot of technical cooperation between our defence sectors, and because it leads to a stronger defence dialogue between EU partners and NATO allies. But this is just an example among many other areas where our two friendly nations already work together and share a common vision, be it in the economic sector, where French companies have increased their investment in Croatia, in the education, scientific and cultural sectors, where more and more students, scholars, artists are building ties, or in the political domain where our bilateral dialogue is strong and regular. The strategic partnership document that was signed by the French President and the Croatian Prime minister, on the 25 of November 2021, builds a new framework, a fully European one, for this already rich cooperation, and we want this to be an opportunity for our peoples to get closer together. The idea is to develop a strategic relationship that is not only bilateral, but also turned toward a joint effort in to build Europe together.