Emmanuel Macron will take part in Brussels today at the European Union summit, which will be his first since his re-election as President of France, after presenting a series of unexpected proposals to reform the European Union and strengthen Ukraine’s presence in Europe, in the face of strong resistance from the east.
“All these European leaders know what elections are and look at their counterparts differently depending on whether they lost or won,” said French diplomat and European affairs expert Pierre Vimont, a fellow at the Carnegie European Center for Studies. in Brussels.
“Emmanuel Macron’s power is stronger than in this election,” he adds, even as he still needs to do well in the June 12 and 19 legislative elections. The President of France, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union until the end of June, also set out a firm position on May 9 in Strasbourg, reaffirming his support for the reform of the European treaties aimed at making the European Union more efficient and proposing the creation of a “European political organization” to bring Ukraine closer to Europe. . After the Russian attack on February 24.
The French president’s calls not to “humiliate” Russia also received an extremely negative response in Ukraine and Central and Eastern Europe.
Here the Polish expert adds: “He firmly believes in the creative power of his word, but we know very well that everything in Europe is subject to concessions, not necessarily the word of the French president, from whom the final decision will be made.” .”
But President Macron needs a Franco-German duo to back his ideas. Chancellor Olaf Scholz found his idea of a European political organization “interesting”.
