French President Emmanuel Macron Press Conference Speech

Presentation of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union at the Élysée Palace, on Thursday, 9 December 2021.

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Emmanuel Macron

Prime Minister,
Ministers,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I am delighted to be with you here today for this press conference about the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which will begin on 1 January, and which is a historic moment. It is exceptional in that France only holds this presidency once every 13 years in a Europe of 27 Member States. Every 13 years, France is responsible for championing the ambitions for Europe, while taking a full role in the European collective. It a role which clearly involves pushing forward our priorities, our ambitions, our own agendas, but also being guardians of a sort of harmony and therefore European agreements which are expected to emerge over the course of these six months. Therefore starting 1 January 2022, we will have to live these six months in special times, which I would like to explain here before we enter into what this Presidency is really about. First of all, these are times marked by an ongoing public health crisis, which has greatly affected us for more than two years. They are also clearly marked by the drastically changing climate, the digital revolution, growing global inequalities, migration issues exacerbated by the manipulation of certain States, attempts to destabilize our democracies and an escalation of tensions even in directly neighbouring regions. In the face of all these crises that have struck Europe, many would like to see nations alone act. These individual nations are what give us our strength and pride, but it is absolutely essential that there be European unity in addition. This moment calls for us to be more effective, more determined, more autonomous, more independent, and I think above all shows us the need for us to unite as Europeans. This is what we have sought to incorporate into the content of this Presidency and portray through the emblem and a few symbolic features that will characterize this Presidency. Before explaining our programme in detail, I may now ask the Minister of State for European Affairs, attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, who has worked on this, to present both this emblem and new coin. I am delighted that our engraver and the Monnaie de Paris (Paris Mint), through its CEO, Marc Schwartz, are here. They have worked on this project for many long months. The Minister will also present to us the map of this work across our country.

Clément Beaune

Thank you Mr President. We are about to embark upon an important time for our country, and I believe for the entire European Union. Of course, you are about to present political projects, legislative priorities, and an ambitious agenda to the French people. But we are also going to present symbols, an identity and messages that we will transmit through very tangible examples. I would like you to discover without further ado the emblem that we have chosen for the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

This emblem, which we have chosen for six months, portrays the initials of the European Union, with France’s colours and European stars. We have included an arrow which sends an ambitious message, which consists in moving forward in the face of temptations to turn inward and at times to give up. This model of Europe, we have been defending under your authority, Mr President, for the past four years, for a more sovereign, more united and more democratic Europe. We have tried to sum it up, sum up the priorities that you are also going to present in a motto that I would like to show you now, three words that embody this European ambition: recovery, strength and a sense of belonging. Recovery because we are still in the midst of the crisis and we are building an economic response at European level. The economic rearmament of Europe is more necessary than ever, we will try to make progress in this area. Strength because it is necessary to achieve a European model that we must preserve and promote in the world; and a sense of belonging because no political project can endure without a collective feeling of being part of an important adventure. These are shared values, a culture that we have in common, a history that binds us and projects for the future.

We also wanted – and you have commended, Mr President, the CEO of the Monnaie de Paris, and the chief engraver who I also wish to commend – a very simple object, a very simple coin to embody this Presidency. I would now like for you to discover a new 2-euro coin. I think everyone has a newly minted coin, Mr Director-General. This 2-euro coin is important, firstly because it is the first time since euro coins appeared in the wallets of French people, Europeans, that in France we have changed the design on this coin. Of course, it is also an opportunity to celebrate the anniversary of the creation of the single currency: the euro will be 20 years old in 2022. French people, like all Europeans, are attached to the euro, very attached as a matter of fact, today more than ever. They support the single currency and have made it a source of stability, protection and appeal for our economies, which has protected us during the crisis. I think that on this symbol that was designed by Joaquin Jimenez, chief engraver at the Monnaie de Paris, there is continuity with the coins we have, but also modernization, environmentally in particular. We can find the motto of the French Republic, an oak tree and an olive tree, strength and wisdom, roots growing up into the sky. It is a symbol that will not just be commemorative. It will be a real coin, which starting 1 January 2022, will be in circulation, which is coined in Pessac, in the Gironde region, just as the first euros 24 years ago and will be available for us all to use as a sign of this Europe that is a part of our daily lives.

And this Europe, Mr President, you have wished that it embody, that it also be rooted in all of the regions in France, on the mainland and in overseas territories. During this French Presidency, these six months, there will be more than 20 ministerial meetings held in every field and in every region. There will be an opportunity to give a closer view of this Europe, to showcase our heritage and our culture regarding all the themes over the weeks to come. You will also give, I believe, Mr President, more details about a number of events that you will host at your level.

A Europe of symbols, identity, proximity, that is what we have sought to embody through these elements. Mr President, I would like to take this opportunity to commend all the teams, across France, who have already done an exceptional job preparing this moment, which is a major honour and responsibility for our country. Thank you.

Emmanuel Macron

Thank you very much. Thank you very much for that. I wish to thank again the Monnaie de Paris, and all the teams who have been working for months, and also thank the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Affairs, the Minister of State, and all the diplomats who have been working alongside them to prepare this Presidency. The Secretariat-General, its Secretary-General, who for the past several months, has been preparing. Of course, all the diplomats at the Foreign Ministry, our permanent representation in Brussels and its teams, and the Secretariat-General of European Affairs working with the Prime Minister. For this task, as you have just seen, is also a focus of many French government policies. Of course, I wish to thank the diplomatic teams working at the Offices of the Prime Minister and the President, all the ministers, and all of the ministers here today. Many months of interministerial work lies ahead for the Government, in addition to the intensive work that has already been conducted over several months to prepare this Presidency.

Also, if I had to sum up in one sentence the goal of this Presidency from 1 January to 30 June, I would say that we need to move from being a Europe of cooperation inside of our borders to a powerful Europe in the world, fully sovereign, free to make its choices and master of its destiny. This is the goal we should pursue. For the first time for more than half a century, we are faced with existential questions to answer regarding the climate, technology and geopolitics, which means we must – and work has already begin to do so, as you know, in recent years – completely transform our organization and to take on new ambition. I had the opportunity to present this agenda in autumn 2017 at the Sorbonne University and we have already achieved many of the goals that were announced. But this work today has become all the more critical because of the context that I just mentioned. We have worked on these priorities and building this European model and this European sovereignty in recent weeks with various Member States, with the President of the Council –whom I was with just a few moments ago – the President of the Commission – with whom I spoke Monday – and of course the President of the European Parliament – who was with the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister a few moments ago. We have also worked with the parliamentary groups – with whom I was on 2 December in Strasbourg, and had extensive discussions to prepare this Presidency. I will explain these priorities before the European Parliament on 19 January in Strasbourg. A series of discussions will be held with the President of the Council, with the Commission and the entire College of European Commissioners in France in January. And discussions, as scheduled, with the European Parliament on 19 January in Strasbourg.

The first thrust of this Presidency is this more sovereign Europe. I believe that a sovereign Europe is first a Europe that is able to control its borders. We have seen this again in the past few weeks with the crisis that we have experienced at Europe’s eastern border. Since last summer at the Lithuanian and Latvian border, then at the Polish border. Protecting our borders is crucial to ensuring European’s security, overcoming the migration challenge and avoiding the tragedies we have lived, situations of strong tensions that we have lived, the hybrid wars we are now facing at the border with Belarus, but also the ensuing human tragedies, which have been direct consequences of them, through the various types of trafficking that have been organized, like what we have experienced in the English Channel region several weeks ago through the tragedy we are all aware of. And to avoid using the right to asylum for other purposes than for which it was intended, which was invented on the European continent and which is our honour, we must absolutely establish a Europe that can protect its borders and come up with a political architecture for migration issues giving us the ability to defend these values. That is why during this Presidency we will initiate a reform of the Schengen Area focused on two priorities.

The first priority will be to put in place political steering of the Schengen Area, as we have done for the eurozone, for which we have established a political architecture with regular meetings of finance ministers. We wish to establish a political architecture and steering of this Schengen Area with regular meetings of the ministers responsible for these issues. Having regular meetings, making political decisions, having the ability to strengthen border controls and having a consistent border control policy improves European credibility, and particularly of those participating in the enhanced cooperation of the Schengen Area. It is a pre-condition for free movement within the Schengen Area. This supports a reform that we are achieving through dialogue and work with the European Commission, and which will produce texts to improve the internal functioning of this Area.

Secondly, we would like to spearhead the creation of a border emergency support mechanism in the event of crises. When a Member State must suddenly deal with a crisis that requires strengthening the border control of our Union – something that has happened again recently – we must be able to count on the support of Frontex, the joint agency in charge of such matters, but also the solidarity support of Member States in the form of police officers, gendarmes and equipment. Again, we had the opportunity to do this several weeks ago when some of our partners needed emergency support. But responses often come too late. Mechanisms are set up in a piecemeal fashion. We genuinely need to create this intergovernmental support mechanism.

Thirdly, regarding this issue of protecting our borders, we would also like, under the French Presidency, to finally see what we call the European migration package progress, which entails better organization of our Europe in terms of migration management. We continue to be determined to work with countries of origin and countries of transit to tackle trafficking and avoid these flows; to protect our external borders; to harmonize our rules, particularly when it comes to asylum and support for refugees or migrants who are on our soil and harmonize the management of what we call secondary flows, namely the movement of people, who once present on European soil must be much better monitored and supported, but with simpler procedures that are more harmonized at European level, to avoid uncooperative games at European level between Member States that we have been seeing for several years. This text is today essential and in the six months ahead, we wish to see it move beyond the protection of external borders that I just mentioned.

The second key element of a more sovereign Europe is clearly making progress on our defence policy. You know that since 2017, we have ambitiously pursued a European defence, with considerable progress: a European defence fund, the European Intervention Initiative, structured cooperation, and several joint Franco-German programmes, open to other Member States in the area of armament, both for our air and ground forces. On the basis of initiatives taken for the past four years, we now need to enter into a more operational phase, defining for ourselves, as Europeans, our joint interests and a shared strategy in the world of threats and risks. In this regard, this Presidency will be a defining moment for what we have called “the strategic compass”, meaning a white European defence and security paper, which will present the state of threats and establish our collective choices, our directions and our ambitions. This strategic compass was launched under the German Presidency and will be completed in concrete terms under the French Presidency at the European Council in March. We will have discussions at the December Council meeting, then at the Summit we wish to hold in France in March on this issue. What is the purpose of this strategy? First, to genuinely define a strategic European sovereignty. This concept, which seemed unthinkable four years ago, firmly establishes that we, as Europeans, whether we belong to NATO or not – because I remind you that several European Union Member States are not NATO member countries – but for those who are, they reiterate their membership to this organization that has proven to be useful and effective. But we have common threats and common goals. Therefore we are going to define and conduct together a common analysis of these threats, champion new ambitions when it comes to the defence industry, establish joint exercises, define our joint partnerships, and define for Europeans our joint organization regarding new areas of conflict: the maritime area, space and cyber space. The European Council meeting of March will officially establish this compass on which different Member States, the Commission and the High Representative have done a great deal of work, and prepare joint positions with a view to the NATO Summit in Madrid in June. It will also very tangibly launch for the first time joint exercises and strengthen the European defence industry.

The third thrust of this sovereign Europe is the stability and prosperity of our neighbourhood. There can be no sovereign Europe if we do not decide in Europe to have our own strategy, our own agenda, when it comes to our neighbourhood. Unable to mention them all, I would like to talk about two geographic areas where structuring initiatives will be taken under the French Presidency. Since the beginning of my term of office, I have made the relationship with Africa a priority, and I deeply believe that the relationship between our two continents which border both sides of the Mediterranean is a major political and geopolitical project for decades ahead. The relationship between Africa and Europe will be structuring in all respects for peace in the Mediterranean region, but also for the peace and prosperity of Europe and Africa. This is in our common interest. France has launched several initiatives in this regard. For four years, we have been trying to modernize our African policy and our strategy, but we must do this as Europeans, building a future for African youth to reduce inequalities, tackle all types of trafficking which exploit poor people and smugglers who have turned the Mediterranean into a shameful cemetery. And therefore, we will hold in this regard, in close cooperation with President Michel, President von der Leyen and all the Member States, a Summit between the African Union and the European Union in February in Brussels, which will bring together leaders of the countries and the institutions of the African Union and European Union. The aim of this Summit is to completely overhaul the relationship because it has become – we must admit – through its instruments, bureaucratized and a bit tired. The relationship should be based on three themes that we have prepared over the past several months. First, re-forging an economic and financial New Deal with Africa. This is what we prepared at the Summit of 18 May held in Paris, if you remember, on the financing of African economies. That is what has helped us to begin the reallocation of International Monetary Fund special drawing rights to African countries that helped us establish this mechanism at the most recent G20 Summit in Rome. We must, as Europeans, follow through to the end with this solidarity with regard to Africans, which simply means looking at the figures published by the World Bank and the IMF, and the fact that between 2020 and 2025, there have been €300 million in financing needs for African economies, because they have the economic and financial consequences of COVID-19 to deal with and a genuine explosion of the population to tackle. Therefore in this regard, Europe must champion a joint strategy with Africa in international fora to promote this solidarity, and overhaul these solidarity investment mechanisms with regard to Africa.

Then, the aim is to set out an agenda in terms of health education and climate which is equal to the challenges in Africa. On these three themes, Africa is facing even greater challenges than ourselves. Regarding education, almost four years ago now along with President Macky Sall, we relaunched a joint partnership under the Global Partnership for Education, and we will pursue it, make it more European, with a real project to further develop girls’ education throughout Africa, but also to train teachers and develop education structures. On health, Europe was a pioneer by proposing the so-called ACT-A mechanism to the G20 and by having this solidarity through COVAX, but also by transferring technology and production to Africa. That is what we will develop during the French Presidency, with a genuine health agenda involving the much faster and stronger deployment of vaccine production structures and primary health production systems. And on climate, we must support Africa’s energy and climate transition. We cannot leave African States without solutions, as their challenges are even greater than ours. We have begun to structure this shared agenda via major initiatives launched at the start of the year like the Great Green Wall, enabling us to respond to the challenges of biodiversity and climate in Africa, but we will also build a strong initiative as part of this Summit by financing energy infrastructures and solutions.

The third main theme of this cooperation is security. As you know, France is particularly involved in this area, but we want to Europeanize it — as we are doing with our work in the Sahel — but we want to Europeanize this partnership and build a true Africa-Europe security partnership, which is the request of the Heads of State and Government to tackle the increase in terrorism on their continent.

And, the fourth theme is to have an agenda on selected mobilities, the fight against human traffickers, the fight against the system of hardship which has been set up and which exploits the most difficult situations, and thus to help organize the chosen migrations, whether they be scientific, cultural or academic, and whether within Africa or between Africa and Europe. These are the main themes of this Reform Summit on 17-18 February. We want to establish a genuine system of peace and prosperity to build investments in African economies and build this shared future. We have built this agenda with Africans, through successive meetings which I have held here in Paris, which President Charles Michel has also held in recent days, which we have built with the Ministers, in May at the Paris Summit and during the Paris Peace Forum and we will continue our efforts in the weeks ahead.

But our immediate neighbourhood is also the Western Balkans. In June, we will hold a conference on the Western Balkans, because more than neighbours, the Balkans are at the heart of Europe — all we need to do is to look at the map and look at our history. This region is now experiencing new tensions. History is back, and tragedy too. So now we have a special responsibility for the Western Balkans. We must carry out a policy of reengagement, but also investment, to encourage economic integration in the region, to develop human exchanges, to raise the issue of minorities in the region, and to combat interference and manipulation, which are the result of several regional powers which, through the Balkans, seek to destabilize Europe. I believe that this work, which is political and economic work regarding the Western Balkans, is a genuine agenda of sovereignty for our Europe, because we cannot build a peaceful Europe over the next 50 years if we leave the Western Balkans in their current situation. We must therefore clarify their European prospects, reinvest in this region and its unity, and have a true shared ambition for the decades ahead.

In my view, those are the three major themes for a more sovereign Europe on which, as you can see, the first half of 2022 will lead to extremely important meetings which will seal the ambition we have held for several years, but which will also lead to practical responses for our citizens, with greater supervision and control.

The second main thrust of this French Presidency of the European Union, which I believe has taken shape for France and for Europe in recent months and during this pandemic which we have all lived through, is to build a new European growth model. In essence, we have to define our shared vision for Europe in 2030. This French Presidency must also be an opportunity to draw up a new European model which is a model of production, but also of solidarity and regulation. Our Europe must be a Europe where we can produce and create wealth on the cutting edge of innovation, a Europe which must uphold its social model because we do not have the same collective choices as Asia or the United States, and a Europe which must be at the heart of the climate agenda, in line with our values. In that regard, and to build this ten-year strategy, on 10 and 11 March we will organize an exceptional summit in France for the 27 Heads of State and Government on this major issue in order to define the new European growth model. We will discuss the specific details but in my view, it should be based on four pillars, which I would like to outline here.

The first pillar is obviously the ability to produce, to have an appropriate economic response to the end of the crisis with one priority: to make Europe a major continent for production, innovation and job creation. We must have one obsession in Europe: to create jobs and combat unemployment, and mass unemployment in particular. This agenda is essential when emerging from a crisis, because we have lived through and will continue to live through the economic and social consequences of this pandemic. To do so, we must build what we started to prepare, but this Summit in March will enable us to complete its work and coherence, the building of strong, integrated industrial sectors: hydrogen, batteries, space, semi-conductors, the cloud, defence, health, culture and cultural and creative industries. In all these hi-tech, value-creating and job-creating areas which will structure the world of 2030, which will structure job creation, the creation of added value or the ability to influence the world of tomorrow, we must guarantee Europe’s place, our ability to create powerhouses, to create as many jobs as possible on our continent and our ability to set the standards for tomorrow and thus be independent. To do that, work at State level is not enough. You have heard me say that several times. But when we must compete with China and the United States, when in some cases we are lagging behind — which is the case for some of these major issues, such as the cloud and semi-conductors, for example, where Europe is indeed already dependent on outside technology, if we want to catch up and in some cases even get ahead, we must act as Europeans and invest as Europeans in skills, industrial presence and innovation, whether to reindustrialize, to build new innovative sectors, or to create genuine technological sovereignty in Europe. So by March, we will finish — and the European Commission has a particular role to play in this — a series of European investment plans and new industrial alliances based around these major goals which I mentioned earlier.

This growth and investment model will also require appropriate budgetary and financial rules to prioritize the necessary investments to support the transitions, particularly the climate and digital transition. To do that, we will need to start to build a credible budgetary and financial framework, which is simplified, transparent and capable of contributing to this ambition of a stronger, more just and more sustainable Europe. During this Summit of 10 and 11 March, we will thus organize a strategic discussion session for the 27 Member States on this issue. What does that mean? It means that during the pandemic, we stopped applying our common budgetary rules. We must return to budgetary rules, which are the only way for convergence between our economies, especially for those sharing a single currency. But we cannot act as though nothing has happened. To successfully develop these alliances and these strong industrial and innovative sectors, we must confirm the need for new investments. We must incorporate these new investments into our budgetary framework. So we need a strategic discussion stemming from that, to say: in the face of this challenge, of the climate, digital, health, cultural and strategic transition, how can our Europe make the right investments at the right level and rethink our budgetary framework in that regard? We will not succeed in these transitions, we will not implement them on the scale of our continent if we return to a budgetary framework which was created in the early 1990s.

At the same time, we must also relaunch shared work on the financial framework. Because although the European Central Bank acted quickly and entirely appropriately when the crisis began, we must also finalize the banking union and capital markets union, because in the face of all these investments, we must also raise as much private money as possible and channel this private funding towards our priorities. This means going further with European integration, with a true capital market, with a financial Europe which is finally integrated. That is at the heat of this agenda and is a part of consistency, because we can only succeed in these transformations if we can readapt our budgetary and financial rules.

The second pillar of this new European growth model is to reconcile economic development with climate ambition. Europe has the chance to become a powerhouse in this area, because it is a means of creating jobs and value for now and the future. By becoming the world’s first continent with the aim of being climate-neutral, we set an ambitious framework. It was in December of last year. The EU27 were the first to commit to this objective. Achieving this objective does not mean producing less or consuming less, but innovating, transforming our policies, setting up the right regulations and investments to save energy by continuing to innovate and produce, to use electricity in all possible fields and to have the highest possible levels of decarbonized electricity. Therefore, we must also invent decarbonization solutions for our economy which are compatible with this growth agenda.

On 14 July last, the European Commission set out a series of legislative texts which concretely reflect our ambition for carbon neutrality by 2050 and for reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030. France’s six-month Presidency must make progress on these texts while remaining focused on one objective: not to waste a minute, because we must act with the utmost urgency, with the right level of investment and innovation to reconcile economic development with climate ambition, and the right level of support for industries and households to enable a permanent balance between climate ambition and social justice; and finally, to preserve our competitiveness and our climate ambition. One of our specific objectives under the French Presidency will be to establish the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. This is the famous “carbon tax” on Europe’s borders, which will help lead this transition for all our industries by maintaining our competitiveness. So what does it involve? Its purpose is to correct the fact that we will require efforts and investments, and we will support them, to decarbonize our industry, but that we will continue to import some goods from regions which do not always make the same effort as ourselves. We will make up for this differential at our borders. Otherwise, our manufacturers will rightly tell us that we are creating a sort of competitive bias and that we will simply abandon our industry if it cannot be modernized. Reconciling industrial competitiveness with climate ambition means putting in place this essential mechanism which we must complete under the French Presidency.

Next, we want to make progress on coordinating our trade, climate and biodiversity policies. In this way, the French Presidency will be a great opportunity for promoting what we call mirror clauses and to have social and environmental requirements in our trade agreements. This too is a question of fairness. European economic actors cannot be the victims of their efforts for the planet. So these mirror clauses provide coordination between our trade agenda and our climate agenda. Furthermore, we will do our utmost – and this will not be possible solely within the French Presidency of the European Union – to include this environmental and social agenda within the framework of World Trade Organization reform.

Finally, on this component, we will also make progress on negotiations on establishing a European Instrument to combat imported deforestation which will aim to prohibit the import of soya, beef, palm oil, wood, cocoa and coffee into the European Union if they contribute to deforestation. We must reset our agenda on fighting climate disruption and preserving biodiversity. Because the two are linked. We showed this at the start of the year by organizing the One Planet Summit for Biodiversity here which helped relaunch this agenda during 2021. France led the first agenda to combat imported deforestation, which here too, was completely in line with our climate and agricultural policy. When we fight for a protein plan, we are fighting against imported deforestation via protein substances from areas which produce these vegetable proteins as a result of deforestation. And so you can see the consistency and systematic nature of this agenda, but we must implement it at European level to be effective together and thus defend at European level the excellence of our agricultural model, which is a high-quality model which we want to continue to support in its transformation and in preserving biodiversity.

The third part of this new European growth model is to make Europe a digital powerhouse. There is no doubt that digital technology is transforming all our production sectors, is at the heart of global innovations, and if we succeed in creating growth and new jobs on our continent, as well as upholding our values and principles, we will succeed in creating, or completing, a digital Europe. First, this means successfully fostering increasingly strong actors, digital powerhouses, by supporting innovation and the growth of emerging actors in the area. For just over four years, France has been implementing a strategy in this area which has shown its effectiveness through our results in continental Europe in terms of raising capital, creating start-ups and capitalizing on major innovations. We would like to Europeanize this strategy and successfully have European financial funds for our start-ups and our most innovative digital actors, by mobilizing our institutional investors. This is what we call the famous Tibi fund which we developed within France and would like to develop at European level; and whether it involves the latest technological areas for digital health or other areas, it also allows us to progress better and faster in developing our digital stakeholders, but also to uphold their sovereignty and, when they are in their strongest growth phases, to stop them seeking the same funds from the English-speaking or Asian countries. The world’s ten largest companies by market capitalization, none of which are European, now include eight tech companies. That is the reality of global capitalism today. But a source of hope is that none of those eight tech companies even existed 25 years ago. So there are indeed grounds for hope. We must simply look at the rules of this international competition to achieve our goals. They are simple: we must create a truly integrated digital market, simplify our rules, remove the barriers among the EU27 and thus continue working on this digital single market. We must have talent and continue with our ability as Europeans to build a talent attractiveness agenda. We have begun doing this within France, and now we need to do it at European level.

Thirdly, to attract financing, as I mentioned a few moments ago, which is the link with a union of capital markets. It means successfully mobilizing Europeans’ institutional savings towards innovation, risk and developing these powerhouses. This is an essential component in order to build the new European growth model.

The second thrust, concerning digital technology, is not to be rule-takers, dependent on other powers. We should define our own rules for the digital world, as I said a few weeks ago at the Paris Peace Forum. As Europeans, we have already succeeded in implementing European regulation for the protection of personal data. Not only is it a success in Europe, improving the protection of our citizens and their data, but we have made it an international standard. The major US companies have adopted this standard, showing that when we manage to organize ourselves, we create global standards. We need to continue this work. We have secured an international agreement on the taxation of multinational enterprises, particularly digital giants. The French Presidency’s agenda will bring the implementation of this agreement, finalized at the G20, at European level. By spring, the texts needed to implement these two pillars will have been examined by the competent Council configurations, particularly the ECOFIN Council, which will put the final touches to this work and enable genuine taxation of multinationals.

Next, there are two pioneering texts that will be discussed at the European Parliament, and which will be a focus of the French Presidency. The first is the Digital Markets Act, the DMA, which aims to ensure that digital giants do not become lawless monopolies and kill the spirit of innovation that enabled them to emerge yesterday. The DMA is ultimately one for the economic regulation of the sector. The second is the Digital Services Act, the DSA, which will establish a liability regime for the major platforms concerning the products they sell and, above all, the content they host. And that is an unprecedented European regulation to fight online hate, to define the liability of these major platforms for their content. That makes Europe a pioneer in the field. The subjects of anti-semitism, racism, hate speech and cyber bullying come up every day. There is no real international regulation on these subjects as things stand. This text will be foundational in that it will establish, for the first time, regulation of content and liability of platforms across a whole continent. These two texts, the DMA and the DSA, will be digital priorities of the French Presidency.

Lastly, and this is the fourth pillar of the European growth model we want to place at the centre of our Presidency, which should set the European production model apart from the others, there is our collective ability to offer workers decent, qualified and better-paid jobs. Ultimately, that means, as the Blanchard-Tirole report states clearly, as do all the economists who submitted the report a few months ago, on the new growth model we wish to promote, creating the right jobs. Europe has always been built around two pillars: competitiveness and the capacity to produce and innovate, on the one hand, and on the other its capacity to have collective preferences and social balances, considering the balances of our societies and its justice, and therefore the ability to create good jobs, paid better and better, and to train employees. If our Europe does not protect, and does not better protect the most vulnerable, if it allows social dumping to prosper, then a lawless market will appear, with nothing in it for the middle classes and working classes. That is the Europe that led to Brexit, we must be clear on that. When some of our peoples consider that they are the losers of a system, they finish by rejecting it, and that is legitimate. In recent years we have already achieved important results that we believed were impossible, I should recall, just a few years ago, on posted workers, with changes to the rules and increased checks. Just yesterday, I was on one of the largest public works sites in France, in the Allier. I observed the implementation of the checks that we can order very tangibly thanks to this European reform, which we initiated. But this Presidency must be an opportunity to go further, and that is why I was keen to involve the social partners in preparing this Presidency. We did that a few months ago, on the sidelines of the Social Summit during the Portuguese Presidency, through a series of bilateral discussions, and we will move forward on several subjects in the coming six months.

Firstly, the directive on minimum wages in the European Union, which does not define a European minimum wage as an average, but rather applies upward pressure through a decent minimum wage, will be central to our Presidency. Last week’s good discussions in the relevant Council configuration brought considerable progress, and I believe we will be able to build on this progress to create a system that is genuinely much more effective, fostering a decent minimum wage in Europe and in all countries. We are also working to foster gender equality, with the directive on pay transparency, which aims to put an end to pay gaps between men and women. We also hope, and the coming hours will be crucial in this respect, to be able to finalize European texts introducing quotas for company boards. These texts had been in limbo for years. I believe we will at last be able to finalize them during the next Presidency and we also hope to make progress on due diligence requirements at European level.

Those are our priorities for this second pillar of the European growth model, on which depends, if you will, our collective ability to reinvent ourselves for the 21st century. We must be able to innovate, produce and rebuild our technological sovereignty and social justice across the continent. We will also have many other major subjects to address on the public health union, on subjects including manipulation of information; farming and prohibition of pesticides, supporting a model of excellence for agriculture; overseas countries and territories; and responsible capitalism, along with many others. But that is the common thread: ensuring this Presidency is useful and enables Europe to assert itself as a power, to take back control of its destiny and to consolidate its singular model.

Lastly, the third major thrust I would like to present here, and which will be central to our Presidency, is what I will call a human Europe, “human-sized” or “on a human scale”, to quote the great authors. I believe that contributes to the singularity that is ours. On the little part of the Earth allotted to us, we have brought democracy, the Renaissance, humanism, the Enlightenment and human rights, always with the profound vocation that made Europe and which must continue to do so. A certain idea of humankind. That is why, above and beyond the priorities I just presented, I want us to make this French Presidency a great moment for European humanism, a time of mobilization for this “human Europe”, with several initiatives, once again, that will mark the coming months.

Firstly, in May, we will conclude Conference on the Future of Europe. That was a proposal I made in spring 2019. It has involved immense work, and I would really like to thank all the teams, associations and dedicated people, particularly the young, across Europe, who have taken part. It will produce conclusions that we will discuss in May with the institutions of our Europe, with governments, and with civil society. That will be an important moment, firstly because it is the fruit of collective work and efforts, and also because it is the spark for reshaping momentum. We must not hope for polished conclusions in May, but rather seek to regenerate a foundational momentum in which we must redesign Europe’s humanist vocation, to make it more effective and closer to our citizens. I believe that is essential for it to be more human. A Europe that gives itself a few simple new ambitions; a Europe that sets itself rules to better involve citizens and be resolutely more democratic; and a much simpler Europe. That is an agenda that we must not lose sight of, and that is essential. This momentum will perhaps lead to a reshaping of our treaties, and I welcome the fact that the new coalition in Germany has set such an ambition. Tomorrow, I will meet the new German Federal Chancellor, Mr Olaf Scholz, who will be in Paris at noon tomorrow, and we will have the opportunity to discuss that ambition. But I believe that this ability, this political readiness of several Member States to embrace these new subjects is essential for the process launched in spring 2019 to have the right ambition, in line with history and focused on the coming decades.

We will also uphold the issue of values, as we always have, which are the very foundation and raison d’être of our Union. We are aware of the current debates on the rule of law. The French Presidency will have to conduct them, and we can come back to the detail of the procedures on all these subjects during the questions. But first, I would like to say here that these questions are not negotiable. They are existential. They are the basis of our treaties, and central to the European Convention on Human Rights itself, which preceded our Union. They are in the constitutional texts of our Union. But these questions should not be the subject of an East-West divide of our continent. They are not a confrontation between countries, societies and peoples of Europe. No. They are an existential political battle for our values and our Union. There are political movements that undermine the very foundation of values and rights that made our Europe, and therefore we must consider new tools, not just sanctions but also encouragements and support. There is in-depth political work to do, because we must also consider countries that are doubting the reality, or the effectiveness, or the relevance of these values. It is our responsibility as Europeans to do so. That is one of the reasons I want these six months to be an opportunity for us to find new instruments, to help promote our democratic freedoms, and in particular, for us to establish a European support fund for independent and investigative journalism. We will fight this battle to defend the rule of law, just as we will fight the battle for our values, for equality, against all forms of hate and against all forms of discrimination. By seeking to extend the list of European infractions to cover hate crimes and speech, by establishing a strategy to fight racism and anti-semitism, and by creating EU legislation to fight violence against women.

Lastly, Europe is an unparalleled history and culture, and it is our duty to promote, defend and pass on that history and culture. The human Europe I mentioned, that European humanism, the belonging that we have also made the focus of our motto, only exists when it is physical and felt. It is our culture as Europeans, our history, and our education. European history is not simply the sum of 27 national histories. There is a coherence, links that everyone feels, but which cannot be fully apprehended yet. That is why I want us to resume, during this French Presidency, major work on Europe’s history. That major work needs to be done in an independent historiographical framework. We are living in a political moment in Europe where revisionism is taking root in several countries, where historical revisionism is used by powers that aim to undermine our values, our history, and sometimes even rewrite their own role in the 20th century. We absolutely must build an academic framework where historians from across Europe can continue to carry out independent historical work, based on traces, evidence and controversies. And I hope we will, in June next year, in France, begin that work which will involve arduous scientific preparation by an independent committee in the coming months, to forge a history and historiography of our Europe and a global history of Europe. That is indispensable, and on the basis of that work, we will have to consider how it can be carried out afterwards in each European country. The European spirit is not merely a past, a flame that must be nurtured and rekindled every day through visible efforts in our schools, museums and culture.

That is why we will also organize a great meeting of European universities in June. During my speech at the Sorbonne, I proposed that we should create European universities. We have – our universities have – been extraordinarily efficient: there are 40 European universities today. That is one of those very tangible achievements that, since my Sorbonne speech, have made it a reality. We will bring together those 40 universities, and any others created in the meantime, in France, in order to further this agenda and to highlight the importance of universities in Europe. I would also like this Presidency to be the opportunity to create a Europe Academy, bringing together thinkers in all fields from all 27 Member States to inform our ethical debates, monitor our freedoms, and propose actions and cultural projects.

And, so that everyone has access to the great artistic works that make us Europeans, that make us feel European to the core, we will take several strong cultural initiatives during this Presidency. Firstly, every cultural actor in France, on the mainland and in our overseas territories, as well as in our representations and our cultural sites in Europe and further afield, is contributing to this French Presidency and its ambition. This comes at a rather particular moment, when we will also, in May, have the 30th anniversary of Arte to celebrate, a source of cultural pride and a great European project. We will develop several initiatives in liaison with all partners who wish to accompany us in these celebrations, deploying “Micro-Folies” where, across all countries and regions, in all European cities that want to take part, there will be initiatives to expand access to operas, museums and artworks, and to promote our shared sensitivity through virtual programmes to give access to these works in communities and places where there is no access to cultural establishments. We have developed such programmes in France in recent years, with real success. We will do it at European level, and once again we will come back to this in May.

2022 will be the European Year of Youth. At the Sorbonne, I proposed widening the Erasmus exchange programme to all young Europeans, as it fosters an open-mindedness that is a unique advantage in adult life. We have already expanded it to apprentices and have doubled the number of beneficiaries. I would like to thank all those who have committed to this ambition and have enabled apprentices across Europe to benefit from the new Erasmus+ programme. We should go further and consider a six-month European citizen service open to young people aged under 25 years for an academic or apprenticeship exchange, an internship or civil society work. This European citizen service is a proposal made to us by young Europeans, submitted to the relevant ministers. I would like us to begin the tangible and genuine implementation of this initiative put forward by our young people during the six months of France’s Presidency.

As you will have understood, this more human Europe is that which, through all these initiatives, will defend our values through our schools, our universities and culture, while ensuring that this battle for Europe is not a battle between us, but a battle that we must always wage. When we consider that Europe has been won, we stop fighting for it. When we forget that Europe is what made us what we are, what forges us, what unites us, then we end up thinking we could break it up without consequences. So this fight is just as existential as that for sovereignty and the growth model I was talking about.

Those are the three thrusts around which the coming six months will be organized, with several events that I have mentioned in my presentation. They are the main ones, but each week there will be ministerial meetings, informal and formal meetings, which will set the pace of this agenda.