Ambassador Pierre Vimont,
Senior Fellow, Carnegie Europe
ABSTRACT
President Macron’s France: On Its Way to New Leadership?
French President Emmanuel Macron’s plans for reforming the European Union and the Eurozone are highly ambitious but credible. They are a welcome call to arms for a European Union that is confronting many crises and threats. He will have a hard time winning over his more cautious European counterparts, not least German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose room for maneuver was stifled by her party’s poor showing in the last election.
Still, Macron is making a powerful, positive case for a renewed EU. That EU embraces globalization and innovation, while also protecting Europeans, doing more to help them adapt to a changing world. Mr. Vimont will discuss whether France, under President Macron’s government, is moving towards a genuine reform of its economy, institutions and social system in order to renew with strong leadership in Europe and world affairs.
BIOGRAPHY
Pierre Vimont is a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe. His research focuses on the European Neighborhood Policy, transatlantic relations, and French foreign policy.
From March 2016 to January 2017, Vimont served as the special envoy for the French initiative for a Middle East Peace Conference. Previously, he had been nominated the personal envoy of the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, to lead preparations for the Valletta Conference between EU and African countries to tackle the causes of illegal migration and combat human smuggling and trafficking.
Prior to joining Carnegie, Vimont was the first executive secretary-general of the European External Action Service (EEAS), from December 2010 to March 2015. During his thirty-eight-year diplomatic career with the French foreign service, he served as ambassador to the United States from 2007 to 2010, ambassador to the European Union from 1999 to 2002, and chief of staff to three former French foreign ministers. He holds the title, Ambassador of France, a dignity bestowed for life to only a few French career diplomats.
Vimont speaks French, English, and Spanish and is a knight of the French National Order of Merit. He holds a degree in law from Pantheon-Sorbonne University, and is a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) and the National School of Administration (ENA).
