Une idée incertaine de l’Europe. Comprendre les ambiguïtés stratégiques d’Emmanuel Macron

Faure, Samuel B. H.

doi:10.3917/lcdm.034.0149

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…A key manifestation of France under Macron seeking to organize EU politics according to French interests has been that Macron selectively favored either supranational or intergovernmental patterns: in fiscal policy, France proposed supranational methods like Commission borrowing. In defense policy, by contrast, not least in an attempt to protect France’s defense industry, Macron at times insisted on intergovernmental European decision-making procedures (Faure 2020c ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a more ‘sovereign’ Europe? Domestic, bilateral, and European factors to explain France’s (growing) influence on EU politics, 2017–2022

Bora

Schramm

2023

Fr Polit

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In recent years, both inside and outside France, scholars and policymakers have emphasized a small and declining French influence on European politics and the political direction of the European Union (EU). By contrast, in 2022, at the end of President Emmanuel Macron’s first term in office, the EU increasingly follows French preferences and ideas. We argue that this renewed French clout is due to the interplay of factors located at different levels of government: a centralized political system and careful preparation of policy objectives at the domestic level, together with a more balanced bilateral relationship with Germany and several exogenous shocks hitting the EU, enabled the French President to upload national policy priorities to the European level. We combine a longer-term perspective, which considers the formulation and pursuit of national strategies, with moments of crisis altering the EU’s status quo and leading member states to promote change. We demonstrate France’s influence on EU politics based on developments in three policy fields, namely fiscal policy, competition policy, and defense industrial policy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a more ‘sovereign’ Europe? Domestic, bilateral, and European factors to explain France’s (growing) influence on EU politics, 2017–2022

Bora

Schramm

2023

Fr Polit

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“…In terms of discursive entrepreneurs, Macron found an important ally in Commission President Juncker (2018), pleading for ‘a Europe of defence’. Key French figures such Michel Barnier, Juncker's special advisor for defence and security between 2015 and 2016, or French Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Arnaud Danjean were also instrumental in pushing for this idea within the EU institutions (Béraud‐Sudreau and Pannier, 2021; Faure, 2021).…”

Section: Discursive Entrepreneurs – Power Through Ideasmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ideational Power of Strategic Autonomy in EU Security and External Economic Policies

Juncos,

Vanhoonacker

2024

J of Common Market Studies

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This article undertakes a comparative analysis of European Union security and external economic policies to explore the different trajectories of strategic autonomy (SA) in these two domains. In so doing, it contributes to a better understanding of endogenous drivers of policy change in response to geopoliticising pressures. Drawing on discursive institutionalism, it analyses three dimensions of ideational power: power in, power through and power over. The evidence, based on documentary analysis and interviews, demonstrates that though SA presented a more significant challenge to pre‐established paradigms in external economic relations, the role of the Commission as an ideational entrepreneur, supported by its coercive power, facilitated the adoption of the idea of (open) SA. Conversely, French President Emmanuel Macron was unable to persuade others of the adoption of a sovereigntist conception of SA in security, with the exception of defence industrial policy, where the Commission enjoys budgetary power and competences.

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“…This characterisation was hyperbolic to say the least as the EII is an intergovernmental and ad hoc forum situated outside of EU institutions (Major and Mölling 2017). As Samuel Faure rightly argues, much of Macron's defence policy doctrine including the nuclear deterrence doctrine, critical attitude of NATO and attempts to instate a ‘strategic dialogue’ with Russia reveals continuing attachment to ‘national’ rather than ‘European sovereignty’ (Faure 2020b, p. 151). The French government's allies are similarly sceptical about France's commitment to European defence policy integration.…”

Section: ‘European Sovereignty’ Across Four Policy Proposalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The true significance of ‘European sovereignty’ instead lies in defence industrial policy , a domain where Macron pursed a radically different policy program based on ‘the weakening of the state's role to the benefit of supranational governance’ and ‘Europe through the market’ (Faure 2020b, p. 164). Given the competitive edge of its defence companies, France is uniquely positioned to capture market shares within an integrated EU defence market.…”

Section: ‘European Sovereignty’ Across Four Policy Proposalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘A Sovereign Europe’? Strategic Use of Discourse at the Service of French Economic Interests in EU Politics (2017–2022)

Bora

2023

J of Common Market Studies

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The ‘practice turn’ in European Union (EU) studies has shown that everyday actions, notably discursive practices, are consequential for producing European integration. Yet, an important development has been overlooked by scholars: the emergence of a ‘European sovereignty’ discourse in EU politics. Since President Emmanuel Macron's Sorbonne speech in September 2017, the EU policy of the French government has been structured around the affirmed objective of building ‘European sovereignty’. It supposes that the EU should become more geopolitical and not shy away from defending its own interests in an increasingly disorderly and hostile world. This article enquires into the objectives that President Macron and the French government have sought to realise by introducing this discourse into EU politics. We argue that ‘European sovereignty’ is a discursive practice that instrumentalises security threats to the EU in order to legitimise France's economic policy objectives, most notably the reform of EU competition policy. Our findings derive not only from publicly available documents and speeches but also 72 semi‐directed interviews.

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Une idée incertaine de l’Europe. Comprendre les ambiguïtés stratégiques d’Emmanuel Macron

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Toward a more ‘sovereign’ Europe? Domestic, bilateral, and European factors to explain France’s (growing) influence on EU politics, 2017–2022

Toward a more ‘sovereign’ Europe? Domestic, bilateral, and European factors to explain France’s (growing) influence on EU politics, 2017–2022

The Ideational Power of Strategic Autonomy in EU Security and External Economic Policies

‘A Sovereign Europe’? Strategic Use of Discourse at the Service of French Economic Interests in EU Politics (2017–2022)

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