The Past, Present, and Future of European integration: a French perspective

Abstract

As one of the founding member states of the European Communities (EC), France has played a major role in the process of European integration since the 1950s. However, French presidents have always treated European integration cautiously, generally supporting forms of supranational integration in areas of socio-economic policy and preferring the intergovernmental mode of governance in areas of defence and foreign policy. In a context marked by the recent weakening of the French influence on European integration (see Assemblée Nationale, 2016), the gradual rise in Euroscepticism since the 2010s (see European Parliament, 2017), as well as the destabilising effect of Brexit (see Zagdoun, 2016), Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 election on an openly pro-European program has foreshadowed the possibility for France to reassert its role as a leading actor in Europe. The aim of this article is to make sense of these events in terms of France’s relationship with the European integration process from its origins to the present day and to understand France’s future role in the evolution of the European Union (EU), while paying particular attention to President Macron’s pro- integrationist influence on the EU.