The delegation toured the white tower that was to host the authority, visited the Flemish old town, and interrupted lessons at the European school, named after late Commission President Jacques Delors. At the end of the day, several guests acknowledged that being the first to declare was an advantage in itself.
In reality, the behind-the-scenes lobbying had started far earlier, with France assuming the role of thought leader on how to cope with the exponential growth in e-commerce packages flooding into the EU from online retailers like China’s Shein and Temu. Paris sounded the alarm on unsafe products months before making waves with a unilateral move to impose its own handling fee on inbound parcels.
An official in the European Parliament with direct knowledge of the vote said French officials had tested the waters on Lille’s chances during a visit to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport last May. “Most other candidates only really started in January, which was simply too late,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to speak freely on the day of the vote.
France also recognized the wish of European lawmakers to play a more influential role in the agency’s seat selection.
Already in November, bid ambassador Laurent Saint-Martin told POLITICO that the Lille team would reach out as soon as possible to MEPs. Warsaw was the only other candidate to actively court MEPs, who under a new twin-track voting system got an equal say in the decision along with EU governments.
Favennec, the project manager of Lille’s bid, hailed the “tremendous lobby work” done by Macron, which continued until the day of the vote. Saint-Martin, a former trade minister, toured countries that weren’t fielding candidates starting in Malta. Lille even translated its brochure into all EU languages, including Irish Gaelic and Greek.