France in preelection push to soften the eurozone s budget rules
French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing to water down the eurozone s budget criteria. But some economists don t think that s a good idea.
Watering down the eurozone s budget rules may prove a difficult task for France given objections by fellow bloc members
Less than a year before France s next presidential elections, President Emmanuel Macron seems to be pushing for a softening of the eurozone s budget rules to gain voter support. But some economists throw their hands up in despair.
The idea was brought back on the table through a recent scientific note by the Paris-based think tank Council of Economic Analysis.
The heads of the European and French cybersecurity agencies, who spoke to French senators on Thursday morning (6 May), called for more cooperation between EU countries and additional resources, pointing to much higher spending on cybersecurity in the United States.
The French Senate welcomed Juhan Lepassaar, director-general of the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), and Guillaume Poupard, director-general of the French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI), for a discussion on cybersecurity in Europe.
In particular, Lepassar pointed to the fact that EU institutions “spend on average 41% less on information security than their American counterparts”.
As part of the Digital Europe Programme for 2021-2027, the EU has pledged to invest €1.6 billion in this area. On top of that, 20% of the budget from the EU’s recovery and resilience facility will have to be spent on the digital transition – including the fight against cyber th
The development of the EU’s Strategic Compass should involve a strategic deepening of EU relations with its partners, write Kinga Brudzinska and Lucia Rybnikárová.
Kinga Brudzinska is GLOBSEC’s Policy Institute’s programme director, Future of Europe; Lucia Rybnikárová is the project coordinator.
In June, the EU embarked on the monumental task of developing a Strategic Compass, intended to bolster the bloc in navigating international challenges and pursuing a common direction on security and defence.
“Strategic Dialogue” with member states will proceed throughout 2021, with the final proposal expected to be ready for adoption by the French EU Council Presidency in 2022.