In his 2017 Sorbonne speech, President Macron has pleaded “for a sovereign, united, democratic Europe.” Four years have passed and France has chaired the Council of the European Union (EU) in the first half of 2022. On this occasion, the French presidency aimed at advancing on the EU’s sovereignty. From the state of play, it emerges that, while the EU brings together elements of internal sovereignty, the Member States remain sovereign, and that, while the EU is a recognised actor in international relations, it does not have the sovereignty which must rely on power.
Since 2017, crises, especially the pandemic, have marked the world. The European Union has been able to overcome these crises by adding elements to its sovereignty, whether it be its budgetary capacity, the consolidation of the euro, the search for a greater industrial autonomy, the affirmation of its commercial interests, progress, albeit still insufficient, in the field of defence, and even in the judicial field, despite the crisis opened by Poland. However, the situation has not fundamentally changed and the question of Europe’s sovereignty remains open, either internally or in the face of the continental states that are imposing themselves on the international scene.
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