A war on immigration and wage unification What is Macron's plan for the presidency of the European Union?

With the advent of the New Year's Eve, France will assume the presidency of the European Union, and its government has appointed a package of measures targeting the most sensitive files of Europeans, while observers agree that President Macron is trying to take this matter as a ride to support his electoral campaign.

On Saturday, early January 2022, France will assume the presidency of the Council of the European Union, which it will hold until June 30. During this period, the French government has set its sights on implementing the most sensitive decisions of Brussels and its member states.

These are the files on the table of the French presidency, on top of which is the issue of immigration and the green transition, as well as finding a final solution to the shortcomings of Brexit, and strengthening the common European defense. This is what the Macron government plans to deal with, with new measures that may transform European reality.

On the other hand, this French presidency comes in light of the country's demand for a presidential election race, which is scheduled to take place next April. Observers believe that President Macron is trying to use the European presidency as a platform to support his presidential campaign.

A presidency with four principles

This French presidency of the European Union comes after a year marked by successive setbacks for the continent, which President Macron did not deny in his speech , who said in his preamble: “We are living in a moment in European history, in which we face the challenges of the health and economic crisis, the threats of hostile forces and climate change, but it is The answer has to be European."

While this answer that the Elysee intends to provide to raise this challenge, according to its official website , is based on four basic principles: strengthening European sovereignty, achieving a green transition, supporting digitization, and strengthening the social and human aspect of the Union.

In order to strengthen European sovereignty, the first thing that the French president touched on is the issue of immigration, as he intends to tighten controls on European borders, implement the new European agreement on immigration, and amend the laws of the Schengen area so that the control of internal European borders is back. Macron expressed this, saying: "Protecting our borders is a prerequisite for ensuring the security of Europeans, facing the challenges of migration and avoiding the tragedies we have experienced."

While the work of this new European agreement is summarized in further restricting the external border crossings of Europe, focusing on documenting refugees, taking their fingerprints and subjecting them to medical examinations, in addition to accelerating the process of accepting asylum applications, and balancing them according to the principle of entitlement, with the text of a “quick mechanism to exclude unlikely migrants.” international protection, meaning those from countries with an asylum response rate of less than 20%, such as Tunisia and Morocco,” said Ursula von der Leyen, then-President of the European Commission.

At the level of the environmental transition, Macron intends to implement the provisions of the European Green Agreement, which may collide with the rejection of large parties from the European Union, not agreeing to speed up this implementation process. Including Poland and Hungary, as the first defends its exploitation of coal mines, and the second on the gas fields project.

In the same context, Macron wants to address another controversial issue, which is the unification of the minimum wage among the countries of the European Union, which may trigger long discussions between member states, and within each country between different social groups, threatening to explode a wave of labor protests in a number of them.

Macron takes advantage of the presidency

On the other hand, observers believe that the French president is trying to strengthen his electoral campaign by exploiting the French presidency of the Union, and including it as an accomplishment for his outcome. It is he who entered his first campaign in 2017 with the slogan "Make Europe strong in the world!".

Which is confirmed by Claire Domaimi, a researcher at the Marc Bloch Franco - German Center in Berlin, that "this presidency gives him (shifty) platform to highlight the favorable outcome of European and differentiation of some of its rivals and put forward new demands and new ideas."

While this could represent a double-edged sword, as it will force Macron and his government to speed up the implementation of his European promises before the elections next April, thus placing his electoral fate in the hands of other European parties that may not agree to follow him in that approach.

Burning cars a tradition in France on New Year's Eve is frowned upon

Young people who love celebrations set fire to hundreds of empty cars parked on New Year's Eve in France, in a tradition that drew great condemnation, and the French Ministry of Interior said that arson attacks have decreased due to the heavy police presence on the streets of cities on New Year's Eve.

Young people who love celebrations used to set fire to hundreds of parked empty cars on New Year's Eve in France, in a tradition that was widely condemned and condemned, but it witnessed a decline this year, as only 874 cars were burned!

The number of burning cars decreased during the last night compared to New Year's Eve 2019, when 1,316 cars caught fire, according to a tweet by French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Twitter on Saturday.

The minister said that arson attacks have decreased due to the heavy police presence on the streets of cities on New Year's Eve.

No information is available on the number of cars burned due to the nationwide lockdown in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.

Reports indicate that the practice of burning cars during New Year's Eve began in earnest among young people - often in poor neighborhoods - in the nineties of the last century in the region around Strasbourg in eastern France.

It also became a form of protest during the raging unrest caused by youthful desperation with housing projects that swept France in the fall of 2005. At that time, police counted 8,810 cars burned in less than three weeks.

At a height of 23 floors, a secret anti-counterfeiting laboratory at the European Central Bank

At the headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, behind a security gate on the 23rd floor, there is a secret place responsible for combating counterfeiting of the currency of the European Union "Euro", in which a group of experts equipped with the latest advanced technologies to detect forgery work.

On the 23rd floor of the European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt is a secret place behind a security gate. It is an anti-counterfeit euro banknote lab.

An auditorium that resembles an applied business room in a school houses a series of sophisticated machines, including a microscope for 3D vision, a microgram scale, and a scientific reader to analyze about ten security signals that are visible as hallmarks of each banknote.

The group of experts working in the laboratory is tasked with monitoring the latest counterfeiting techniques used because counterfeiting the euro is still a reality twenty years after the introduction of this currency into circulation, even if this phenomenon has receded over the years.

About 460,000 euro notes were withdrawn from circulation in 2020, 18% less than the previous year.

Precise work

Experts in Frankfurt have to do a very meticulous job, comparing real banknotes to fake ones based on tiny security details.

On a real 20 euro note, magnified about seventy times on a computer screen. The number 20 includes grooves resembling a plowed field, reflecting the prominent print of this coin, as demonstrated by the European Central Bank team. An unprofessional forgery may not give the same result.

Each country in the Eurozone has its own Anti-Counterfeiting Center (AFP)

Eric Langia, a bank expert, explains that citizens "don't necessarily have the reaction to look closely at banknotes to spot counterfeiting easily."

The central bank has been trying for years to train the public to spot counterfeiting by “touching, looking, and tilting” the banknote.

Langia stresses that "if we look closely at a banknote, knowing that the quality of the forgery is generally bad, it will be easy to detect."

Jean-Michel Grimal, head of the European Central Bank's banknote development department, says the risk of acquiring counterfeit currency is still “very low” for consumers after all.

This explains, according to him, the "strong confidence" in the single currency as a safe payment method for the European population, which amounts to about 80%, according to recent official research.

Strongbox

In the laboratory, a strategic piece was placed in a corner, an iron safe that requires two people to open it, each of which knows part of the secret word.

Inside it were stacked about a thousand counterfeit banknotes ranging from 5 to 500 euros, which were analyzed in this place twenty years ago.

Each country in the eurozone has its own anti-counterfeiting centre. But in Frankfurt, the most "interesting" banknote brochure was made because it was the best forgery, according to Langea.

This data in turn helps security forces such as Europol, which monitors criminal networks.

The research and development teams in the bank, tasked with improving the quality and security of banknotes, are interested in the findings of this laboratory.

"If counterfeiters are seen making special technical efforts, the R&D teams wonder if they can be countered," Grimal explains.

Every year, the bank allocates a large budget to try to issue banknotes that cannot be counterfeited, and this method is kept secret.