The European Union has moved in the direction desired by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Emmanuel Macron was elected French president for the second time on Sunday. He stepped in front of his supporters to give a speech in Paris. In the background is a part of Ludwig van Beethoven’s ninth symphony An ode to joy, composed for an idealistic poem by Friedrich Schiller. The same tune played in the Louvre’s courtyard in 2017 when Macron’s presidency was celebrated for the first time. It is the symbol of the European Union.
In the fall of 2017, Macron listed its goals as president. Many of them joined Europe and the European Union. Macron wanted to condense the EU, both economically and defensively.
Europe has gone in the direction Macron intended. The response to the coronavirus pandemic brought more financial solidarity and shared debt to the Union. Europe’s green transition will increase the policy’s ability to steer the market, which is well suited to French economic thinking.
Economic discipline in the euro area has eased. There is no return to tight deficit and debt limits, as France has hoped. China’s economic pressure is turning the Union’s competition and industrial policy more protectionist, more French.
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German power has flowed to Italy and France.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has also moved in the direction that France hoped for when the eurozone was built. The ECB is no longer just a regulator of inflation, as demanded by Germany. The ECB’s stimulus measures and the anticipation of tightening monetary policy indicate that the central bank has shifted its focus to the needs of the real economy. Just as France originally hoped.
The war in Ukraine is now also intensifying security policy cooperation, which fits Macron’s drawings five years ago.
Macron has alongside Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi in both his economic and Russia policies. They have demanded bans on imports of Russian energy. France has already decided to send heavy weapons to Ukraine. Italy intends to do the same. Germany has made it clear in recent weeks that it will not keep up.
EU leadership has changed. Instead of the German-French tandem, the Union is now tricycle. The carefree of the second season and the economic and security changes in Europe will give Macron the opportunity to further increase French power through the EU – that is, to achieve what he wanted in 2017.
The author is the editorial editor of HS
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