{"id":437971,"date":"2025-10-17T18:22:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T16:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/10\/17\/macron-riceve-von-der-leyen-per-parlare-di-europa-e-geopolitica-mentre-la-francia-e-in-fiamme\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T20:01:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T18:01:28","slug":"macron-meets-von-der-leyen-to-talk-europe-and-geopolitics-while-france-is-on-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/10\/17\/macron-meets-von-der-leyen-to-talk-europe-and-geopolitics-while-france-is-on-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Macron meets von der Leyen to talk Europe and geopolitics, while France is on fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Ahead of next week’s EU leaders’ summit, French President Emmanuel Macron<\/strong> met this morning (17 October) with EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, President of the European Council Ant\u00f3nio Costa<\/strong>, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The only one physically present at the Elys\u00e9e Palace was the head of the EU executive, while the other two connected by video call. On social media, von der Leyen thanked Monsieur le Pr\u00e9sident<\/em> for an in-depth exchange of views on the geopolitical situation<\/strong> and European competitiveness<\/strong>, two key topics on the agenda for the heads of state and government.<\/span> <\/p>\n

“We have a busy agenda ahead of us: acceleration of our simplification and decarbonisation<\/strong> programme, resolute support for Ukraine<\/strong>, strengthening of our European defence capabilities<\/strong>, and the role of the European Union in promoting a durable peace in Gaza<\/strong> and its reconstruction,” pointed out the Commission president, who met with Macron for a bilateral on the sidelines of the meeting with Costa and Merz.\n<\/p>\n

\n

Thank you to @EmmanuelMacron<\/a> for welcoming me to the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace for an in-depth discussion on the geopolitical situation and European competitiveness, ahead of next week’s European Council.<\/p>\n

We have a busy agenda ahead of us: accelerating our simplification agenda… pic.twitter.com\/hiEBtmj13k<\/a><\/p>\n

– Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) October 17, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

At the centre of the discussions next Thursday (23 October) will be several hot topics, as anticipated<\/a> by Costa himself. On the subject of the war in Ukraine,<\/strong> there will certainly be talk of the face-to-face between Donald Trump<\/strong> and Volodymyr Zelensky<\/strong> at the White House, which is taking place right now. It should go better than the stormy last February<\/a> one and rather resemble their recent meeting, at which the Ukrainian president
\nhad himself escorted<\/a> by half a dozen Old Continent allies. <\/p>\n

But Zelensky’s main demand\u2014to obtain the Tomahawk<\/strong> long-range missiles from the US\u2014may fall on deaf ears for the umpteenth time. Although the tycoon seems to have changed his stance on the conflict,  Kyiv and Brussels are still suspicious about the US administration’s proximity to the Kremlin and its leader, Vladimir Putin<\/strong>, as highlighted in recent hours<\/a> from a new phone call between the two presidents,<\/strong> as well as, above all, from the decision to arrange a bilateral meeting in Budapest<\/strong> as soon as possible, without Zelensky.<\/p>\n

The Hungarian prime minister is already beating the propaganda drum<\/b>, and this thorny issue was likely addressed this morning by the old guard of Europe at the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace. However, this has not been officially confirmed. In parallel, the Magyar leader (together with his Slovakian colleague, Robert Fico<\/strong>, expelled today<\/a>from the Party of European Socialists) continues to block the adoption<\/a> of the 19th package of sanctions<\/strong> against Moscow and to dig his heels in
<\/a>against the EU’s plans to abandon the Federation’s hydrocarbons<\/strong>.<\/span> <\/p>\n

In Brussels, the leaders of the Twenty-Seven will also discuss the Middle East<\/strong>, a crucial region where Macron is determined to leave his mark as an essential part of his political legacy<\/strong>. Now more than halfway through his second and final term, the French president seems obsessed with this idea. Proof of this is, on the one hand, his activism<\/a> (in many ways essentially cosmetic) on the recognition of the<\/strong> State of Palestine<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Mahmoud<\/a>
Palestinian National Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas (left), and French President, Emmanuel Macron (photo: Ludovic Marin\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the other hand, the fact that last Monday (13 October)<\/span> he flew<\/a> to Sharm el-Sheikh to attend the signing of the <\/span>historic peace agreement<\/strong> (<\/span>sic<\/em>) <\/span>between Israel and Hamas,<\/strong> while <\/span>at home<\/b><\/a>, the worst political crisis of the Fifth Republic<\/b> was unfolding: Three premiers burned in the space of 15 months, and the fourth, <\/p>\n

S\u00e9bastien Lecornu<\/b>, who survived by a handful of votes<\/b> a double censure in the most divided National Assembly in modern French history. <\/p>\n

A crisis that was triggered by Macron himself<\/b> last year with the early dissolution of Parliament<\/b>, and which threatens to render the continent’s second-largest economy dangerously dysfunctional. With public debt and deficits out of control<\/strong> and political instability on the verge of becoming chronic, the trajectory of Paris tells a different story: Macronism has lost its propulsive thrust<\/strong> and, indeed, has thrown fuel on the fire of social conflict<\/strong>, instead of calming or containing it. <\/p>\n

Be that as it may, at the next European summit, France’s seat will still be occupied by Macron. There, with Merz, Costa, and the other heads of state and government, he will also discuss European defence<\/strong> (based on the Readiness 2030 strategy recently presented<\/a> by the twelve-star executive), competitiveness<\/strong> and simplification<\/strong>, green and digital transition<\/strong>, housing crisis,<\/strong> and migration<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The bilateral meeting at the Elys\u00e9e Palace on the sidelines of the meeting with Friedrich Merz and Ant\u00f3nio Costa ahead of the next European Council. The President of the Republic wants to leave his legacy in the Middle East to history, but Donald Trump decides there too. And at home, he has opened Pandora’s box<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":437967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[31262,25802,26042,31856,26260,27335,32382],"class_list":["post-437971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-donald-trump-en","tag-emmanuel-macron-en","tag-council-en","tag-guerra-israele-hamas-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437972,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437971\/revisions\/437972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}