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5:24 p.m. : Emmanuel Macron announces that he will be in Hungary on Monday to meet Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “He is a political opponent”, specifies the president. “We are 27 heads of state government around the table. Whatever our political sensitivities, our choix, we must work together for our Europe and therefore my duty is to carry the voice of France, to defend the interest of France, but to help build useful compromises for Europe and France “, he assures.
5:17 p.m. : Emmanuel Macron’s presentation is over. Then begins the question-and-answer session. The president mainly waits “questions on all subjects on Europe, of course, including subjects that I was not able to address to talk about our presidency”. “But obviously, if there were some national questions”, he will answer it, he smiles.
5:15 p.m. : “When we consider that Europe is a given, we no longer fight for it. When we forget that Europe is what made us, what forges us, it is what binds us.”
5:14 p.m. : “Let us reflect on a 6-month European civic service open to all young people under 25. For a university or learning exchange, an internship or an associative action. This European civic service is a proposal that we, we make the young Europeans who have been handed over to the competent minister. “
5:11 p.m. : “2022 will be the European year of youth”, promises Emmanuel Macron.
5:07 p.m. : Emmanuel Macron proposes to “rethinking the budgetary framework” of Europe so far defined by the Maastricht criteria. With the health crisis, “we put on hold the application of our budgetary rules“, he declares. “We will have to return to rules which alone allow the convergence of our economies”, “but we can’t pretend nothing happened” and “to return to the budgetary framework created at the beginning of the 90s”.
5:03 p.m. : “We will also act for equality between women and men with the directive on pay transparency which aims to put an end to the pay gap between women and men.“
5:03 p.m. : Emmanuel Macron announces that the EU will move forward on the “the directive on minimum wages in the European Union, which does not define a European minimum wage as an average, but pulls all low wages up thanks to a decent minimum wage”.
5:00 p.m. : “If our Europe does not protect and does not better protect the weakest, if it allows social dumping to flourish, a market without rules appears where the middle classes and the working classes no longer meet. It is this Europe that has fueled Brexit. “
4:59 p.m. : “Europe has always been built on these two pillars: competitiveness, the capacity to produce and innovate, but also its capacity to have collective preferences and social balances.”
4:57 p.m. : A summit between the African Union and the European Union will be held on February 17 and 18 in Brussels within the framework of the French presidency of the European Union, announced Emmanuel Macron, in order to “overhaul in depth” the relationship “a bit tired” between the two continents.
4:57 p.m. : “These two texts will be priorities on the digital side of the French presidency”
4:57 p.m. : The “Digital Services Act” (DSA) intends to fight against fraud and illegal content online. It will require platforms to implement means to moderate the harmful content they host.
4:56 p.m. : Emmanuel Macron evokes the “Digital Markets Act” (DMA), which relates to the markets. It aims to crack down on the anti-competitive practices of large groups in Silicon Valley, including Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft (the “Gafam”).
4:53 p.m. : The second pillar announced by Emmanuel Macron for a new growth model in the EU is to “reconcile economic development and climate ambition”. The main objective is to enable the EU to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 and to reduce the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030.
4:53 p.m. : And the 2nd priority please?
4:41 p.m. : For Cécile Robert, specialist in European institutions and policies interviewed in this article, “there may be transitions at the highest level of institutions” negotiations, “because these are partly political positions”. Nevertheless, the majority of people working within the SGAE, for example, “have no reason to move”, because they are “specialists in European issues”.
4:41 p.m. : Hello and bravo for the thread. A question if Mr Macron is not re-elected, will he keep the presidency of the eu?
4:40 p.m. : The third major axis of this cooperation between Africa and Europe is security “to deal with the rise of terrorism on this continent”. “This is what we are doing within the framework of our actions in the Sahel”, adds Emmanuel Macron.
4:39 p.m. : Yes, on our site, just after the conference!
4:39 p.m. : Hello FI! Where will it be possible to review the President’s entire intervention on the PFUE?
4:37 p.m. : “On the climate, we must support the African continent in its energy and climate transition. We cannot leave the African States in solution. Their challenges are even greater than ours.”
4:35 p.m. : “Since my mandate, I have made the relationship with Africa a priority and I indeed believe deeply thathat the link between our two continents which border the two shores of the Mediterranean is the great political and geopolitical project of the decades to come. “
4:34 p.m. : “The third axis of this sovereign Europe is the stability and prosperity of our neighborhood. There is no Europe if we do not decide as Europeans to have our own strategy, our own agenda.”
4:33 p.m. : Here is the sequence in which Emmanuel Macron presents his reform of the Schengen area.
4:51 p.m. : Hello @Lea It is the head of state or head of government of the presiding country who governs the presidency of the Council of the EU.
4:31 p.m. : Hello. Is there a named chairperson to lead this board? What is he? The President of the Republic, a minister, another political figure?
4:31 p.m. : “The second key element of a sovereign Europe is obviously to move forward on our defense policy.”
4:27 p.m. : Anyone (national of the EU or of a third country), once entering the territory of one of the countries of the Schengen area, can cross the borders of other countries without checks. Air flights between the Schengen area are considered as domestic flights.
4:27 p.m. : Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus and Croatia are not part of the Schengen area.
4:27 p.m. : The Schengen area is an area of free movement of people. It brings together 22 of the 27 EU member states, plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
4:27 p.m. : Emmanuel Macron announces a reform of the Schengen area “around two priorities”. “The first will be the establishment of a Schengen political steering system, as we have done for the euro zone”, he assures.
4:26 p.m. : “To prevent the right of asylum which was invented on the European continent from being misused, we absolutely must find a Europe which knows how to protect its borders and finds, on the issue of migration, a political organization which puts us in a position to defend its values.”
4:24 p.m. : “The first axis of this presidency is a more sovereign Europe, a Europe capable of controlling its borders”, says Emmanuel Macron.
4:23 p.m. : “If we had to sum up this presidency in one sentence: we must move from a Europe of cooperation within our borders to a powerful Europe. In the world, fully sovereign, free of its choices and master of its destiny. That’s the goal. “
4:21 p.m. : Emmanuel Macron thanks the General Secretariat for European Affairs (SGAE) and the Permanent Representation of France to the EU (RPUE). These two bodies will be very involved in the negotiations during the presidency.
4:21 p.m. : Clément Beaune then continues with the presentation of a new two-euro coin which was struck in Pessac (Gironde). It will be in circulation from January 1, 2022. It was created by Joaquim Giménez, the general engraver of the Monnaie de Paris.
4:27 p.m. : Each country at the head of the Presidency of the Council of the EU chooses a logo before its governance. Currently, Slovenia has chosen a logo with the slogan “Together, Resilient, Europe.”
4:25 p.m. : Clément Beaune, Secretary of State for European Affairs, unveils the emblem of the French presidency of the European Union.
4:24 p.m. : “It is at the same time a role which consists of obviously pushing our priorities, our ambitions, our own agendas, but also to be the depositaries of a form of harmony and of European agreements which must emerge durably.”
4:13 p.m. : “It’s a historic moment”, affirms Emmanuel Macron to begin his speech.
4:12 p.m. : Follow Emmanuel Macron’s press conference live in which he presents his priorities for the French presidency of the European Union.
4:15 p.m. : Hello @Louison, in principle, a priori nothing is against it, but it remains very complicated because the presidencies of the Council of the EU are preparing very well in advance, and it would have required the agreement of the other countries of the EU.
4:07 p.m. :. Hello. Could E. Macron have refused the presidency of the EU, because of the French election?
4:00 p.m. : You are right @EuropeanDroit, and thank you for reminding you. The Council of Europe is not an EU institution, but an international organization of 47 states.
4:00 p.m. : And not to be confused either with the Council of Europe, which is another international organization (nothing to do with the EU) and which only deals with human rights It is in the Council of the Europe of the European Court of Human Rights
3:59 p.m. : Hello @al Depending on the files dealt with during the PFUE, and their results, this could have an impact on voters. But for Christine Verger, vice-president of the Jacques Delors Institute, whom I interviewed in this article, the context of the campaign and the electoral reserve period will imply that the PFUE, “on the political and media level, will be more or less slowed down from March 15”.
3:59 p.m. : Hello Elise, will the French presidency of the EU be able to play a role in the presidential elections?
3:56 p.m. : Be careful not to confuse the Council of the EU with the European Council. The latter has a fixed presidency (at the moment it is Charles Michel, former Belgian Prime Minister). It brings together the leaders of the 27, who define the priorities of the European Union.
15:55 : Every six months, a member state takes the head of the Council of the EU. Right now, it’s Slovenia and from January 1, 2022, it will be France. His role ? Finding compromises between the Twenty-Seven on several issues (such as economic recovery, defense, the fight against global warming …) This article explains everything.
(ISOPIX / FREDERIC SIERAKO / SIPA)