Insight
The paradox of French power by Charles Grant, 10 December 2025 France has a very weak government with an uncertain future, yet it remains a dominant force in EU policy-making. How does one explain this paradox? Ever since the days of Robert Schuman, Jean Monnet and Charles de Gaulle, French politicians and officials have played a huge role in shaping the European project. More recently the likes of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and Jacques Delors have made their mark. Even when France lacked such eminent leaders, as for example during the presidencies of Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, the French government still wielded great clout in Brussels. Emmanuel Macron, who became president in 2017, enhanced that influence, through taking a great interest in the EU, and having ideas on how to change it. But given the political disarray to which France has succumbed in the past 18 months, with a succession of weak governments unable to forge a majority in the National Assembly, one might have expected French influence to diminish. This has not been the case. France remains a force to be reckoned with in EU policy-making, in areas such as industrial and trade policy; defence policy; and relations with the UK. Nowhere has French power been more evident than in the story of Britain’s failed attempt to join Security Action for Europe (SAFE), the new EU scheme designed to encourage the integration of EU defence industries through EU lending and joint procurement. The UK was not seeking grants or even loans from SAFE, but wanted its companies to be eligible to benefit from joint procurements. Most EU member-states wanted to see the UK involved. The French said much the same. But the view of some senior Brussels officials, working for both permanent representations and EU institutions, is that France did not want to see the UK in SAFE. Whatever the truth, what is undeniable is that France persuaded Coreper (the powerful committee of permanent representatives to the EU) to set conditions for membership that would be hard for the UK to meet. And Coreper instructed the European Commission to pursue those conditions. CER INSIGHT: THE PARADOX OF FRENCH POWER 10 December 2025
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