Toward a more ‘sovereign’ Europe? Domestic, bilateral, and European factors to explain France’s (growing) influence on EU politics, 2017–2022

Abstract In recent years, both inside and outside France, scholars policymakers have emphasized a small declining French influence on European politics the political direction of Union (EU). By contrast, in 2022, at end President Emmanuel Macron’s first term office, EU increasingly follows preferences ideas. We argue that this renewed clout is due to interplay factors located different levels government: centralized system careful preparation policy objectives domestic level, together with more balanced bilateral relationship Germany several exogenous shocks hitting EU, enabled upload national priorities level. combine longer-term perspective, which considers formulation pursuit strategies, moments crisis altering EU’s status quo leading member states promote change. demonstrate France’s based developments three fields, namely fiscal policy, competition defense industrial policy.