On 30 June 2022, the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which was carried out during the last six months (→news of 20 January 2022), came to an end. The Presidency was marked by the efforts to provide a united and firm EU response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine. Results in the area of justice and home affairs included:

• The introduction of the Schengen Council to improve the political governance of the Schengen area;
• The progress on the proposal to add hate speech and hate crimes to the list of "euro crimes";
• The amendments to the mandate of Eurojust to address alleged core international crimes by collecting, preserving and sharing evidence (→separate news item).

Noteworthy is in addition that under the French Presidency the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act could be adopted. This new EU legislation limits the distribution of illegal content and products online and restricts the economic domination of large digital platforms respectively.

In sum, 130 legal texts were adopted and more than 2000 meetings between European leaders took place. Under the French Council Presidency, also the Conference on the Future of Europe concluded the debate on the way forward of the Union in the next decades. The Conference agreed on recommendations which were submitted to the EU institutions and Member States for further discussion (→ separate news item).