PFUE 2022 - Overview of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union [fr]

A united and strong Europe in the face of Russian aggression

The French Presidency of the Council of the European Union was strongly impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Emmanuel Macron brought together the heads of state and government of the European Union in Versailles on 10-11 March 2022 for a summit that adopted sanctions against Russia and coordinated on a common response. In particular, the European Union succeeded in adopting six packages of sanctions against Russia in response to this aggression. Ministers from the 27 member states agreed to provide unprecedented financial, military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, totalling 20 billion euros.

Achieving the priorities of the PFUE

The exceptional and historic context of the war in Ukraine did not prevent major advances in the PFUEagenda. The priorities of the PFUE were to move the Union of 27 towards a more sovereign, more social, greener and more citizen-friendly Europe.

With more than 400 events organised in France and more than 2 000 meetings of European officials, the French Presidency has made concrete progress with 130 texts adopted on priority political subjects.

Among these advances, a few examples can be noted:

• the adoption of a "Strategic Compass", a strategic roadmap for the decade that defines European interests and a shared defence strategy;
• the adoption of the Climate Package to reduce our emissions by 55% by 2030;
• the adoption of DSA (digital service act) and DMA (digital markets act), requiring the digital companies to have sufficient means to fight misinformation, fraud and online hate, and to comply with competition law;
• the adoption of a directive on minimum wages in the European Union;
• the introduction of a reciprocity instrument on public procurement (RIP), making it impossible to close access to a third country’s market without Europe closing its own.

The full review of the EUFP and the measures adopted can be found here.

As the President of the Republic said on 24 June 2022 in Brussels, "The Europe of June 2022 is very different from that of January 2022". France hands over the baton from 1 July to the Czech Republic, which takes over the Presidency of the EU Council for the next six months. Together with the Czech Republic and the third member of the trio, Sweden, France will remain involved to contribute to the success of this presidency.

Read more :

• Summary of the results of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union
• Read the speech of the President of the Republic at the press conference of the European Council of 23 and 24 June 2022