The exercise returns less and less quickly, with the various enlargements. From the entry into force of the Treaty of Rome, on 1is January 1958, it was agreed that each Member State would chair the meetings of the Council of Ministers in turn, every six months, in alphabetical order of the official names of the countries in their language of origin.
As long as the EEC had six members, France assumed the function every three years. Today, it has to wait 13 years, the time to let the 26 other capitals take their turn. Paris, which will have control over the agenda of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2022, will therefore have to wait until 2035 before this burden falls to it again.
► Six French presidents at work
Between 1959 and 1968, Charles de Gaulle had four rotating presidencies (1959-1962-1965-1968); Georges Pompidou, one (1971); Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, two (1974 and 1979); François Mitterrand, three (1984, 1989, 1995); Jacques Chirac, two (1995 and 2000), Nicolas Sarkozy, one (2008). François Hollande is the only President of the Republic not to have had his turn.
→ EXPLANATION. French Presidency of the European Union: what is it?
As for Emmanuel Macron, he is the second French leader to take the reins of the Council of the EU in the midst of the presidential election campaign. In 1995, François Mitterrand, who was not running, gave way at the end of his mandate to Jacques Chirac, victorious on May 7.
In 1965, the presidency was held from January to June, just before De Gaulle’s election in December. The latter began a crisis of “Empty chair” on the role of common agricultural policy (CAP) funds. It will not be resolved until January 1966.
Exercise changes
The rotating presidency of the EU was not formalized until the 1970s, after the establishment in 1974 of the European Council bringing together heads of state and government, under the leadership of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and the chancellor. German Helmut Schmidt. This operation was then transposed into the Treaties of Maastricht and Nice.
The French presidencies have accompanied the crises and the major advances of the European Union. In 1984, the Élysée resolved the dispute over CAP funds caused by the British Prime Minister who had been asking for budgetary compensation since 1979 (the famous « I want my money back ! »). In 1989, Paris was at the helm when the Berlin Wall fell, while Helmut Kohl was preparing for German reunification. “Mitterrand played an important role in the recognition by Germany of the Oder-Neisse line which marks its border with Poland”, recalls Christian Lequesne, professor at Sciences Po.
→ EXPLANATION. How does the Presidency of the Council of the European Union work?
In 1995, despite the electoral campaign, France contributed to some progress, such as the definition of the objectives of the single currency, or the creation of European funds for development targeting countries which were not members of the European Union, in particular the Mediterranean.
In 2000, in full cohabitation under the government of Lionel Jospin, discussions got bogged down on the questions of enlargement and adaptation of institutions to this change of scale, against a background of disagreement with Germany on the status of the countries. from Central Europe. This resulted in the Treaty of Nice (2000) to which we must quickly come back.
Loss of influence
In 2008, Nicolas Sarkozy was the last Head of State to lead European summits as President of the European Council. He had a decisive role in the resolution of various crises, in particular after the bankruptcy of the American bank Lehmann Brothers, putting in the background the ambitions of reform of the CAP, immigration or defense.
“During this presidency, Nicolas Sarkozy also provided important mediation for a ceasefire in Georgia, with a meeting with Putin while the Russian troops were advancing. It’s something that Emmanuel Macron could no longer do today ”, comments Christian Lequesne.
→ PRACTICAL. Presidency of the European Union: what is France’s program?
The Lisbon Treaty, which entered into force on 1is December 2009, establishes a function of full President of the Council, appointed by the Member States. Three personalities have succeeded since then in this post: Herman Van Rompuy (Belgium, from 2010 to 2014), Donald Tusk (Poland, from 2014 to 2019) and Charles Michel (Belgium, since December 2019). Emmanuel Macron will therefore have to work in close collaboration with the latter. The two men are both part of the liberal political family.
The Lisbon Treaty also includes the principle of working in a trio of countries. France will, for example, have to cooperate with the next two rotating presidencies, those of the Czech Republic (second half of 2022) and of Sweden (first half of 2023).
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