French presidency of the EU: a momentum for Europe and France

France will take over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the next six months, from January 1^st to June 30^th 2022. The French Presidency of the European Union (PFUE) website and social networks are already open to follow the highlights of this future presidency. 

Each of the Member States of the European Union holds the Presidency of the Council for a six months duration. Thus, for the first time in 14 years, from January to June, it will be France’s turn to preside over this Council, which brings together the ministers of the Member States of the European Union by field of activity. France will become the EU’s co-legislator in association with the European Parliament.

A presidency is a high time for the Member State that assumes this responsibility, since it is then placed “at the very forefront of the European scene and benefits from this opportunity to increase its visibility”.

Competence in a dozen areas

The government’s information site indicates that in concrete terms, the Council “organises meetings, draws out compromises, issues conclusions and ensures the coherence and continuity of the decision-making process”. The presidency also “ensures good cooperation between all Member States and manages the Council’s relations with the European institutions, in particular the Commission and the European Parliament”.

The Council is competent in about ten or so areas of activity: general, economic and financial issues, justice, employment, social policy, health, competitiveness, transport, telecommunications and energy, agriculture and fishing industries, environment, education, youth, culture and sport, trade, etc. The Council also has budgetary powers: it adopts and modifies the European budget with the Parliament.

Tailor-made communication

About 400 events will be organised in France and in the EU to boost and share the French presidency. Political debates, cultural programmes and civic events will be open to all audiences and mark this period. To this end, the presidency website and social networks are already operational to follow the high times of the next presidency. The French presidency website (www.europe2022.fr) is accessible in French, English and German and offer an auto-translation service for the 21 additional official EU languages. The website provides many useful information about various issues such as:

• the priorities defined by the French presidency;
• the programme of institutional, political and cultural events held throughout the presidency all over France:
• the latest news, press releases and speeches;
• information about cities where the events will be held in France.

Social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin) will share this information and, especially, all contents in relation with the presidency will be accessible live on Twitter with the official hashtags #PFUE2022 in French and #EU2022FR in English.

Projected programme for higher education and research

Though all fields are included, higher education and research are on the forefront. As part of the event, the French minister for higher education and research will set up a dozen events throughout the first semester 2022.

The programme will be published soon and should include a dozen main events:

• an informal reunion of ministers in charge of the ESRI;
• eight high level conferences about the priority issues of the construction of a European space for higher education and research;
• three themed reunions of experts participating in the governance of the this same space.

To know more 

- general presentation of th PFUE 

- information about PFUE 

 - events

- higher education and research in PFUE 

Photo credit: © Ghislain Mariette / Présidence de la République