Declaration of Mr. Jean Castex, Prime Minister, on the main orientations of the French President of the European Union program, National Assembly on December 15, 2021.

Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, deputies,

On January 1, 2022, our country will ensure the presidency of the European Union for 6 months.It will be, for our country, a founding member of the Union, of its 13th presidency.It is a fairly rare event insofar as it only intervenes at the age of 13 or 14, once every three legislatures.

The Presidency of the Union is a major political event for any country, because it is a question of assuming institutional responsibility which allows the good progress of negotiations to the Council of the Union.

This responsibility is all the greater for us since, traditionally, the French presidencies arouse a lot of expectations, both with us and our partners.An increased responsibility by a very particular context, that of an unprecedented health crisis which is not yet completed.

This health crisis which has aroused an unprecedented reaction from the Member States and the European institutions.The European Union has rarely blocked in its history.It has thus shown, on vaccines, remarkable solidarity, which has made it possible to protect the European populations, and to expand this protection to other countries.The European Union is now the world's leading producer of vaccines, the first exporter and the first donor to the international covax mechanism.

To deal with the economic and social consequences of the health crisis, Europe has also shown remarkable reactivity, coordination and ambition: the commission suspended the rules of the stability pact and granted a verygreat flexibility on state aid.

Above all, the Union has, under the leadership of France and Germany, set up an unprecedented recovery plan in the amount of 750 billion euros funded - which is also unprecedented - by a European loan.France benefits very directly from it and will receive 40 billion euros, or 40% of its recovery plan.It has already received 5.1 billion euros and must receive 7.4 billion euros additional in the first quarter of 2022. And this recovery plan works: French growth will be in this 2021 around 6.7% this year - oneof the highest in the euro zone.The unemployment rate fell to a lower level than it was before the crisis.The level of job creation has been at the highest in 12 years.

And I also want to highlight the decisive role of the European Central Bank which reacted from the start of the pandemic in March 2020, by launching an unprecedented program of securities to stabilize the financial markets and thus avoid a financial crisis.In total, the ECB will have mobilized nearly 2,200 billion euros to finance the European economy, face depression and ensure its stability.

The European Union therefore took the full measure of the situation, and it turned out, I say it here with force, a protective, reactive and effective framework, without which our country like all our neighbors would have faced this health crisis,economic and social, under very different and much more difficult conditions.We have to go beyond, by drawing the more structural consequences of this crisis which must be an opportunity for Europe as for France, to arm more to face the great challenges of the 21st century.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we need Europe to respond to certain major issues.Yes, it is European construction that will allow our country to strengthen itself in an increasingly hostile international environment, to better defend its interests in an eminently competitive context, to better protect its citizens and its companies in a world where theMultilateralism is threatened by new imperialist ambitions.There is no France without a strong Europe, just as there is no strong Europe without a strong France.

And the French presidency is aimed at strengthening Europe and therefore France.This presidency, we have prepared and anticipated it with long hand.

It has been almost two years since the preparation work began: at the level of the services first, then at the political level then with, for almost a year, a dozen meetings of an inter -ministerial committee that I gathered with the'All of the competent ministers.

The national representation has, as it should be, has been associated with this preparation, the National Assembly having thus interviewed many ministers and officials responsible for preparing the presidency.It is within this framework that this declaration comes in the respect of article 50-1 of the Constitution.

The French presidency of the European Union will make France shine in Brussels and on the national territory.Two summits, 20 Informal Council meetings, more than 400 events will be organized in France.There will be cultural events in Brussels and everywhere in France, including in our ultra-marine territories.This presidency will also be an opportunity to forcefully defend the status of European capital of Strasbourg: in addition to being a symbol of European reconciliation, it is a subject of national interest.I also repeated it to the president of the European Parliament last Thursday, when he came to Paris.

To consolidate this status, the President of the Republic signed last May a new three -year "Strasbourg European capital" contract which provides for numerous concrete shares and 189 million euros in investments.I went there last week to confirm state commitments to local elected officials that I also know very mobilized.And Strasbourg will host more than a dozen events related to the French Presidency of the European Union, including two ministerial levels: the informal education and youth meetings on January 26 and 27 and the informal agriculture council on February 8.

During our presidency we will need other European Union institutions, including the European Parliament that I received last week in Paris as part of the Conference of Presidents, but also the EESC and the Committee of the Regions.We also need civil society, citizens, territories, reflection groups, businesses, national representation, in a word from all the living forces in our country and the European Union so that weportions together a European ambition.Because a presidency is neither a centralized exercise, nor the Salon of the Entre étoire, it must be shared with all our fellow citizens.

Our goal is clear: to show that Europe is embodied concretely.

Government’s European policy is perfectly known.The axes were placed by the President of the Republic during his Sorbonne speech in 2017: allowing Europe to assert itself as a power.The priorities of the French presidency are both within the framework of these orientations and in that of the European agenda.

The first priority is a more sovereign Europe.A sovereign European is first of all a Europe capable of mastering its borders.Also, we want, under the French presidency, to advance the migration asylum package, whose negotiations are for the time being blocked at European level.We also want an ambitious reform of Schengen's governance.Finally, we will bring the idea of creating an emergency support mechanism at borders in the event of a crisis.I have maintained these subjects with my Italian, Belgian and Spanish counterparts in recent weeks.

A more sovereign Europe is also a Europe with a defense policy.We have obtained considerable advances: a European defense fund, as well as the European intervention initiative.Today we must enter into a more operational phase and define what we have called "the strategic compass" of Europe, that is to say identify our common interests, to us Europeans and, therefore, a strategyShared in a world of threats and risks, new ambitions in defense industry, and define joint exercises.

In this regard, we will propose to pay particular attention to the regions and strategic areas for the security and diplomacy of Europe, namely Africa and the Western Balkans, but also Indo-Pacific.I would like to insist particularly on the link between Europe and Africa, which will undoubtedly be one of the major geopolitical projects of the decades to come.First from a security or migratory angle, but also by building between our two continents a peace and prosperity contract, increasing development aid as we do in the fields of the future, such as the education of girls andGreen energies, entering mutual investment opportunities, developing university, scientific, artistic exchanges, between our civil societies and our youth, on both sides of the Mediterranean.This will be the subject of the African Union - European Union Summit scheduled for February.

The second high priority is the construction of a new European growth model.Our ambition is to make Europe a great continent of production, innovation, job creation.For this, the good level of action is Europe.We must lay the foundations of the European Union of 2030, that is to say from a Europe power, capable of protecting its companies, innovating and being at the forefront of research, especially in terms of'Ecology and digital.Europe must assert itself as a great power that is both industrial, ecological and social.

For this, as the President of the Republic said, we must reconcile economic development and climate ambition.The European Commission has presented a set of legislative texts translating our ambition of carbon neutrality for 2050 and of 55% reduction in our greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. No region of the world is fixed such strong requirements.The semester of French presidency will have to advance these different texts, in particular the carbon adjustment mechanism to the borders.

At the same time, we must deploy massive support systems and help our industries, businesses and fellow citizens, help them bring out world leaders on a certain number of future technologies, which presupposes a coordinated strategy ininvestment matter, especially in the key sectors of the future such as hydrogen, cloud, health or electronic components.

This economic subject is, because it engages our collective sovereignty, an eminently political subject.The crisis highlighted the too great dependence of the European Union, especially industrial.This is the reason why, on the sidelines of the Council meetings, France will organize ministerial conferences specifically devoted to the strategic autonomy of the European Union, on the decarbonation of industry, on strategic autonomy and onhealth industries.These exchanges must allow us to better treat European vulnerabilities for which market mechanisms are not enough to meet our needs.

In particular, we will accelerate the work so that the products that are imported within the European Union comply with the standards that we impose on European companies.It is the technique of mirror clauses.This applies to product safety, but it will be more widely worth for health, agricultural and environmental rules.This is what we do, for example, on electric batteries: those produced outside Europe will have to comply with the same environmental standards as those produced in the Union.

Finally, the French presidency will highlight the progress made in the space sector, in particular our achievements on the European Alliance of Launchers and I tell you that the same day we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the CNES, created as you know byGeneral de Gaulle.These innovation efforts must continue through the satellite constellation program, intended to offer a European telecommunications infrastructure for sovereign and commercial uses.The development of the constellation of European satellites and the establishment of an alliance of launchers are two cornerstone of the strategic autonomy of the Union, which we will employ ourselves to make significantly progress.

Likewise, there can be no sovereign Europe without strengthening its digital and technological sovereignty.In these fields, absolutely strategic, France will continue and ensure that the work undertaken on the regulation of digital markets, with the two main texts of the digital package: the DSA and the DMA.These texts will regulate the behavior of major digital players and better supervise the dissemination of content on platforms.

The DMA, you know, aims to unlock access to digital markets and promote the emergence of competition, for example, by prohibiting self-referencing practices of certain platforms that promote their own services.For its part, DSA will empower digital platforms by facilitating the withdrawal of illicit, hateful or disinformation content.

Finally, the construction of this new European growth model cannot be thought of without a reinforced social dimension.It is the heart of European identity, the search for a balance between economic growth, protection of workers' rights and the development of individuals, it is also a historical position of France.

France will strongly carry the global ambition carried by the action plan for the implementation of the European base of social rights, as well as the legislative initiatives of the Commission for the benefit of the construction of a more inclusive Europe.Very concretely, this will result in the progress of the three main directives which will be on the Council table on January 1: the European framework for minimum wages, wage transparency and, finally, the protection of platform workers.

Actions in favor of a "human Europe" will constitute the third major strategic priority of the French presidency.It is the defense of a singular model, born after the Second World War which forms the very reason of our union.We see certain political forces, everywhere in Europe, wanting to question this base of values and rights which is the basis of European identity and project.Our presidency will have to be the occasion for new initiatives to protect our model and improve it.This will notably be the subject of the Conference on the future of Europe, whose France initiated the idea, taken up by the President of the Commission.

We have already led an unprecedented consultation, with 50,000 young people aged 15 to 30, and organized panels of citizens drawn, in each region of France, last September and October, bringing together nearly 1,000 people. The results of these regional conferences are clear: the three priorities concern climate protection, strengthening European defense and the development of new industrial projects. These conferences also expressed a strong aspiration for institutions closer to our fellow citizens, more democratic and ultimately a easier and simpler Europe. They have also highlighted the progress that must be made in knowledge by our fellow citizens of what Europe does, because it does a lot. All these contributions have already made it possible to integrate these expectations into the priorities of the French presidency of the Council of the European Union. The final conclusions of the Conference on the future of Europe will be drawn in the spring of 2022, with the objective of continuing to bring this approach to a Europe closer to its citizens. This is an obviously essential subject.

Especially for our youth. A youth of which it will be the year in 2022, and which will have suffered particularly in their studies, in its access to employment and in their lifestyle with the pandemic. This will involve the construction of a European civic service of six months open to all young people under the age of 25 for a university or learning exchange, an internship or an associative action. This will also go through education and culture. Europe is not only an internal market. It is a place of teaching which will be all the more efficient as all academic actors will be able to unite their forces and contribute to it. Also, France will organize a large meeting on European universities to strengthen the academic network of European excellence and set up the European universities that the President of the Republic had proposed during the Sorbonne speech. Finally, France will take several strong cultural initiatives during its presidency, celebrate the 30th anniversary of Arte and make proposals for the development of access to operas, museums through virtual organizations to make these works accessible.

Ladies and gentlemen, you see it, the French presidency agenda is rich.I still mentioned in front of you only the most structuring sites.We have the desire as much as the duty to achieve or advance many texts illustrating the priorities that I have presented before you.We must also project ourselves into the future, build this 2030 Europe, more sovereign, more united, more democratic.In reality, this work does not start on January 1, no more than it will be completed on June 30.Our commitment dates from the first day.

Who thought possible, less than 5 years ago, to create a European defense budget, shared industrial defense projects, especially with Germany?

Who imagined, when the Paris Agreement was threatened in its very existence, that we would set ourselves the objective of carbon neutrality for 2050, the first in the world?And that we would pretend to vote the European legislation necessary to translate this ambition in reality?Again two years ago, only 3 countries defended this carbon neutrality, including France.

Did we then think of creating a common debt, a solidarity investment plan for Europe, acting in concert with Germany in this long taboo path?

Who was betting on the progressive construction of a social Europe, with the reform of detached labor and the strengthening of social rights all over the Union?

Who believed that we would manage to tax international giants, thanks to France and Europe, that we could define the first standards in the world of regulation of these major platforms, at the same time as we manage to protect the copyright?

The European moment that we live requires even more: from migratory crises to climate upheavals, from the digital revolution to trade tensions, all this requires more affirmation and more independence.This need for sovereignty is an imperative.Because all the challenges we face are common to all Europeans and all involve the place and rank of Europe in the world.

We don't miss any assets for that.The EU is the second commercial power in the world, the second currency, the first climate power, the first player in international solidarity by the aid it distributes.An immense cultural, scientific, intellectual, industrial and technological power.This is the EU.Let's be proud.As we have to be lucid on its weaknesses which are as much margins of progress.

Europeans are now aware that no one will think, act or fight in our place.More than ever for almost a century, the fate of Europe is in its own hands.It is this European moment in which the French presidency is part.We summed it up in a motto, which says our ambition for the European Union: "Relaunch, power, belonging".

This ambition is clear: that Europe continues to count among the great global powers of the 21st century, but also that it remains for the world a source of inspiration, appeasement, and prosperity.To these challenges, France must make its complete contribution.

She will do so with humility, soberly, respecting her partners, but also with the strength of her convictions, his history and his interests which are more intimately linked to those of Europe.

Thank you.

Source https://www.gouverment.fr, December 16, 2021