France: Disenchantment in Slow Motion
In France, Europe basically expresses four objectives: peace, parity with Germany, economic development, and leveraging French power. But today, the feeling abounds that none of these objectives are really being achieved.
For most French citizens it seems that the EU is unable to explain which path it follows. This disaffection is important at a time when national institutions are also contested in several European countries. However, the French are themselves ambivalent on the best path forward.
For the French there was, and maybe there still is, a European project which unites philosophical, political, and technical dimensions. However, it is essential to revitalise its political dimensions. Three key challenges need to be resolved: the Greek crisis, the migration crisis and the neighbourhood crisis.
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France: Disenchantment in Slow Motion
Author(s)
Dominique DAVID
Président du Centre franco-autrichien pour le rapprochement en Europe (CFA), conseiller du président de l’Ifri, rédacteur en chef de Politique étrangère et co-directeur du Ramses
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