A visit by H.E. Mr. Pierre Cochard, Ambassador of France

On May 24, 2022, the Ambassador of France to Serbia, H.E. Mr. Pierre Cochard, paid his first official visit to the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Novi Sad. At the event in the Ceremony Hall, organized by the Francophone Center of the University, the Ambassador held a lecture with the title What kind of Europe do we want? The lecture was attended by the students, teachers and other Faculty staff.

As France presides over the European Council for the first 6 months of this year, everything that Ambassador Cochard said about Europe during the lecture had its specific weight. Amongst the numerous, often recurring topics when discussing the EU, the Ambassador particularly emphasized the need to move from unanimity to qualified majority decision-making in the Union, which should facilitate decision-making. The explanation of the so-called "French opposition to the further process of EU enlargement" was also interesting. The Ambassador pointed out that one of the reasons was certainly the resistance of French voters to enlargement, but at the same time he underlined that the French elites had previously made decisions that were not in line with the majority public opinion and that they would probably be forced to make such a decision in this case as well.

After the lecture, there was open discussion which included the students and teachers.

The visit ended with a conversation with members of the Department of Romance Studies.