​​As France takes over the Council Presidency, challenges abound

France is now holding the presidency of the European Council, the EU’s governing body responsible for defining the bloc’s overall political direction by detailing strategic priorities. France’s ambitious president, Emmanuel Macron, will undoubtedly use this as an opportunity to raise his political profile, both domestically and across the Union.

After all, Germany’s new coalition government between SPD, Greens and FDP is already weakened by internal discord that could enable Paris to enforce its role in European politics at a time when the Union needs to show strength as never before. On the domestic front, Macron is hard-pressed to woo the electorate and demonstrate his leadership in anticipation of the general elections in April. None of this will be easy for Macron. With the EU facing several – arguably existential – challenges, his Council presidency could be a make-or-break point for Brussels.

1) Manufactured geopolitical tensions are complicating the migrant crisis

The migrant crisis has kept the EU in its grip for half a decade, and things are only heating up since refugees coming from Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia have become pawns in geopolitical power plays. It’s evident that Belarusian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko stirred up the border crisis, likely in an attempt to push Brussels to lift the sanctions that were imposed on his country by the bloc. Reports abound of Belarus, allegedly with Russian support, ferrying migrants from their home countries to Belarus, where they’re send to the border and encouraged to cross.

As the conditions on the border are remaining tense, Brussels is accusing Minsk of attempting to internally destabilize the EU, which is already struggling to maintain unity and find common solutions to the influx of migrants, most of them headed for Germany. Securing at least a common agreement on how to handle the crisis would be a major boon to France’s presidency – and Macron – that would not only project European unity across the globe but might take the edge off the crisis in general.

2) Fighting climate change as a normative power

Reducing the adverse effects of climate change and advancing the EU’s role in doing so is a stated priority of France during the 2022 Presidency. And Macron has sought to approach the issue from a different direction, via “mirror measures” in trade agreements. Mirror clauses would compel the EU’s trading partners to adopt its production standards, thereby reducing the competitive disadvantage faced by European producers as a consequence of stricter environmental regulations.

A case in point is the beef trade between the EU and Brazil, the biggest beef exporter to the EU. Whereas European beef producers must trace their cattle from birth to slaughter to ensure that they were raised in accordance with environmental and sustainability laws, no such restraints exist in Brazil. Indeed, Brazilian cattle are not individually traceable throughout their lives, putting European cattle farmers at a disadvantage.

The lack of enforcement of environmental laws in Brazilian cattle farming have been devastating for the rainforest. More than 17,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of illegal deforestation were linked to cattle farming in the Amazon state of Pará alone. Mirror clauses, if implemented consequently, are hoped in Paris to enforce private and state sector compliance with EU norms, for face trade boycotts. Their large-scale implementation would be a welcome development for the bloc’s strategic agenda as a sustainability norm-setter in the fight against climate change and unsustainable practices.

3) Covid recovery to avoid a “lost decade”

When the pandemic first hit the world in early 2020, the economic impacts were stark: with business activities coming to a grinding halt, the EU’s real GDP that year contracted by an unprecedented 6.1 percent. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen signed off on the first EU Covid recovery plan in June last year, releasing close to €17 billion of the $800 billion strong recovery fund for crisis-mitigating investments. The results are already visible, with growth having resumed surprisingly strongly in 2021.

However, as the Omicron wave sends caseloads skyrocketing across the continent, deeper challenges remain unresolved. Among them is the widening divide between the EU’s Northern and Southern countries, only exacerbating long-standing inequalities. Furthermore, public and private debt loads have risen steeply across the EU and are suppressing entire populations’ ability for high-value economic activity. Overcoming these challenges by improving economic resilience and fixing macroeconomic imbalances will prove to be key. Otherwise, the EU might face, like the rest of the world, a “lost decade” of growth due to weak investments, uncertainty and high persistent unemployment.

4) The perennial pressure to get digitalization on track

The Covid pandemic has laid bare how much the EU lacks behind other regions like the US and China in terms of digitalization – a big problem not only in light of the contact restrictions that make office work impractical, but especially regarding the fact that the analogue and digital economies are merging into one. The European Digital Single Market holds the promise of unprecedented results: lower prices for consumer goods across the Union due to facilitate price convergence along with improvements in productivity and ease of business worth trillions.

Yet the sluggish pace of progress across the bloc, particularly in Germany, impedes Europe’s ability to compete globally in an international environment where innovation is crucial for both economic and technological development, as well as sovereignty. No surprise that Paris has been vocal about establishing European digital sovereignty that seeks to reduce dependence on foreign tech while boosting the EU’s status as a start-up in competition with Asia and North America. The sooner this high-flying rhetoric becomes a reality, the better the EU’s chances to hold its own in an increasingly tech-competitive world.

France has its work cut out for itself during this Council presidency, yet if Paris succeeds in creating the momentum necessary to bring about long-lasting change in the EU, a lot would already be won.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or the management of EconoTimes