Nicolas Beytout 7:59 am, October 19, 2021
Every morning, Nicolas Beytout analyzes political news and gives us his opinion.
This Tuesday, he is interested in the speech of Emmanuel Macron at the opening of the States General of Justice.
The president attacked European law.
This Monday, Emmanuel Macron launched the Estates General of Justice in Poitiers, and he took the opportunity to attack those who, he said, succumb to "this old French disease" by attacking European law.
European law and its temple guardians, the European Court of Justice, and the European Court of Human Rights.
The intervention of the Head of State is a response to a series of declarations of French politicians against the imposition by European justice of supranational rules of law.
The case had started to stir the political landerneau when, this summer, the European Court of Justice rendered a judgment requiring France to count the working time of most soldiers as if they were employees or ordinary officials.
Of course, waging war on RTT is not Clausewitz.
And everything started again recently with the decisions of Poland, among others, which defends the primacy of its national law over European laws.
Exactly, a position shared with a few other European countries, and which has led several French presidential candidates to criticize European justice: Michel Barnier, yet wearing his great European scarf, Valérie Pécresse, and then Marine Le Pen, Eric Zemmour , and on the left Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Arnaud Montebourg, sovereignist tendency.
It is obviously far, very far from being a purely theoretical subject.
Michel Barnier, for example, points to the case of the European Court of Human Rights which in certain cases opposes the expulsion of illegal immigrants, however decided by a sovereign State.
In this case, he says, the rule of law of the country should prevail.
And this is what Emmanuel Macron disputes.
He said it in pretty harsh terms.
He declares to be "astonished, to remain modest" to see this "old French disease" reappearing. We feel that the Head of State wants to hit harder, to play politics, to mark his potential adversaries closely and therefore to join the fight for the respect of these treaties which, he recalls, were "signed and then sovereignly ratified". In other words, it would be a mistake to go back on the word given in the name of the French people. It's beautiful, it's determined (Emmanuel Macron sees himself as the ultimate defender of these texts), except that it's not very convincing. And we will have proof of that today. Because, by an unfortunate coincidence of timing, the European Commission is launching today a huge work of revising the Stability Pact, the famous "Maastricht"and his no less famous 3% deficit rule.
This rule, which has been suspended since the Covid crisis.
Since all countries have poured hundreds of billions of euros into their economies to save businesses and jobs, and to fight the ravages of the health crisis. It was the right decision, but what "whatever the cost" at European level must come to an end. The object of the work launched earlier by Brussels (and which will last for months) is: how do we come back to a minimum discipline in Europe? How, and at what pace, are countries putting their public finances in order? And of course, the stake for some (including France) will be to exclude from the calculation of the maximum budget deficit a whole series of expenses considered from now on inevitable: the financing of the energy transition, military expenditure in an increasingly more uncertain,and then the aftermath of the pandemic. It will be a tough fight, because many so-called "frugal" countries do not understand it that way and want France, an eternal bad spendthrift and over-indebted student, to finally respect the Treaties it has signed. This is the great paradox of Emmanuel Macron's European choices: brandishing the word given and the defense of our democracy when he talks about European justice, but forgetting that budgetary and monetary discipline should result from the same respect for texts which have been sovereignly ratified.brandish the word given and the defense of our democracy when it speaks of European justice, but forget that budgetary and monetary discipline should result from the same respect for texts ratified sovereignly.brandish the word given and the defense of our democracy when it speaks of European justice, but forget that budgetary and monetary discipline should result from the same respect for texts ratified sovereignly.