France’s new government was finally announced over the weekend after an unprecedented 67-day wait, but its survival is already in question as urgent files with significant EU repercussions pile up, and a potential no-confidence vote is on the radar.
It’s not just the 2025 budget bill new ministers have their eyes on: files with an EU dimension need to be addressed, as the new European Commission takes shape and France will do what it can to have its voice heard on key matters.
Who will be the government’s heavy-hitters in Brussels? Euractiv has a short list of the top ministers to watch out for:
Agnès Pannier-Runacher – Green transition, energy, climate and risk prevention
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The name of Agnès Pannier-Runacher is well-known among EU energy nerds as one of Brussels’s most prominent pro-nuclear voices.
As energy transition minister from 2022 to 2023, she oversaw the creation of the EU Nuclear Alliance, which brings together nuclear-savvy member states, and played a key role in negotiations over the EU electricity market reform.
After a short stint as agriculture minister earlier in 2024, Pannier-Runacher comes back with an extended portfolio as climate and energy have been brought together under one ministry – energy used to be under economy, industry and finances.
This change is yet another proof of France’s long-standing argument that a green transition is impossible without nuclear power.
But Pannier-Runacher has a harder mission in Brussels: convincing EU Commission Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera and Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen, both nuclear-energy sceptics in charge of green transition and energy respectively, that investing in the atom is the future.
Bruno Retailleau – Home affairs
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Barnier had to nudge the far right to secure – or at least hope for – their abstention in an upcoming no-confidence vote.
Bruno Retailleau is that nudge.
A long-serving conservative Les Républicains senator, he has made himself known for his immigration policy stances, which are actually not that different from those of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN).
For example, he has recently blamed second-generation immigrants for “regressing” and “isolating themselves “based on ethnic lines.” He seems thus ready – and so does Michel Barnier – to breach EU law if this means adopting tougher anti-immigration rules.
Retailleau will oversee the implementation of the recently adopted EU Migration Pact, but expect him to push for more stringent rules.
“We must reopen the file […] The pact does not provide for all means necessary to protect the EU from illegal immigration, especially on return policy and investment for first-entry member states,” an EPP MEP and close ally to Retailleau told journalists earlier this week.
Benjamin Haddad – EU affairs
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Did someone say Excessive Deficit Procedure?
Benjamin Haddad may not be the leading man restoring France’s public accounts, but this does not mean his task will be any easier: he will be responsible for ensuring the satisfaction of EU stakeholders in member states and institutions while the country gets back on track.
The role is so crucial that he will report both to the Foreign Affairs Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, and the Prime Minister. This arrangement shows how Barnier, a two-time EU commissioner and lead Brexit negotiator, wants to keep a close eye on what is being discussed in EU circles.
Haddad will be in charge of institutional affairs, and provide inter-ministerial support so the government as a whole sings from the same hymn sheet in the bubble, as France’s influence in Brussels is more questioned than ever.
Once an EU-US relationship expert at the Atlantic Council in Paris and the Hudson Institute in Washington DC, the 38-year-old was elected to the National Assembly in 2022 and again in 2024 in the 16th arrondissement, one of Paris’s most aristocratic neighbourhoods.
A close Macron ally, he said in a speech on Monday (23 September), he would make France’s voice in Brussels “more ambitious and offensive.”
Antoine Armand – Economy, finances and industry
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Armand will be to France what Séjourné is due to become to the European Commission: a staunch defender of competitiveness, prosperity and industrial rebirth, with a green twist.
As the youngest-serving economy minister at 33, he will take over Bruno Le Maire’s pledges for regulatory simplification, wage increases, and “industrial, technological, and digital sovereignty,” he said on Sunday (22 September).
While Armand will not be directly involved in budget negotiations – those will be handled by another minister, Laurent Saint-Martin, who is reporting directly to Barnier – his role will be to push for more ‘strategic autonomy’ in all economic sectors.
He will also oversee the implementation of the reformed Stability and Growth Pact and the Net Zero Industry Act, two recently-adopted flagship pieces of legislation.
Expect him also to get his hands dirty on a set of new legislative proposals European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has laid upon Séjourné to spearhead: a future EU Clean Industrial Deal and an Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act.
[Edited by Martina Monti]
Source: euractiv.com
