Do the Europeans Trust France?

Pol Morillas, director of CIDOB, analyses France’s role in EU foreign policy and transatlantic relations in the last entry of Judy Asks blog: “Macron’s grandiloquent diplomacy and strategic enterprises often face material circumstances and harsh realities. Not so long ago, he declared NATO “brain-dead”. Ahead of the adoption of a new strategic concept that should modernize the Alliance’s purpose and strategic thinking, territorial rivalries and the conflict in Ukraine bring the Alliance back to its confrontation with the original enemy. When all Europeans were asked to push Macron’s reset button toward Russia, the Kremlin strengthened its revisionist policies and built up a military presence in the EU’s eastern neighborhood. So, it is perhaps not Macron’s ambition in EU foreign policy that troubles many member states and institutions, but his pompous ambitions in highly divisive and complex theaters. Some fear that European sovereignty will eventually be about benefiting France’s share of power and capabilities in the EU. Central and Eastern Europeans and the Baltics fear distancing from the United States because a more French EU would never be able to replace Washington’s clout. And Southern Europeans blame France for going it alone when more joint positions could be forged. Pro-integration Europeans acknowledge that France will never cease to be the indispensable partner for a more global EU, both diplomatically and in terms of capabilities. Albeit reluctantly, France also knows that it cannot go it alone or lead the EU in which the United States remains the only protector of the European security architecture.”