She served as a foreign affairs advisor; Goulard also is a former president of the Mouvement européen-France, the oldest pluralist association defending the European ideal.

[3] Goulard graduated with a law degree from the Université Paul Cézanne Aix-Marseille III and studied at both Sciences Po in Paris and the École nationale d'administration (ÉNA).

Le Mouvement Européen-France regularly organises meetings, conferences and debates which aim are to enable a dialogue between political figures, experts and the general public.

In addition to her committee assignments, Goulard served as chairwoman of the European Parliament Intergroup on "Extreme Poverty and Human Rights".

Other prominent supporters are: Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Guy Verhofstadt, Isabelle Durand as well as Jacques Delors, Joschka Fischer, Andrew Duff and Elmar Brok.

[5] In November 2016, Goulard officially announced her candidacy for the office of President of the European Parliament;[6] the post eventually went to Antonio Tajani.

She welcomed the disciplined budgetary approach of the so-called “frugal” European countries, which made it possible to implement the Economic Recovery Plan, as well as the 2021–2027 EU budget.

[16] She supports European competition policy, which she sees as beneficial to inhibit the emergence of monopolies, as well as to lower prices, promote consumer purchasing power and compel companies to innovate.

[18] On 28 August 2019 President Macron nominated Goulard[19] to be the French Commissioner in the von der Leyen Commission and lead the newly established Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space[20] After two "tense" hearings before the EP Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), her nomination was rejected on 10 October 2019, with 82 votes against, 32 in favour and 1 abstention.

[29] On 21 October 2019, two dozen personalities from across Europe, including Robert Badinter, Silvia Costa, David Capitant, Etienne Davignon, Jacques de Larosière, Clemens Fuest, Jean-Paul Gauzès, Charles Grant, Miguel Poiares Maduro, Paolo Magri, Giampiero Massolo, Riccardo Perissich, Etienne Pflimlin, Jean-Marc Sauvé, Giuseppe Tesauro and Jean-Claude Trichet, co-signed a statement[30] that the European Parliament was wrong to dismiss Sylvie Goulard.

[35] Goulard, a centrist, strongly supports NATO and the European Union, and holds hawkish views on the regimes of Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Following the 2014 elections, Goulard joined fellow MEPs Othmar Karas, Sven Giegold, Sophie in 't Veld and Alessia Mosca in an open letter aimed at exerting pressure on the President of the European Commission and national government leaders during the nominations process to improve the gender balance in the composition of the European Commission.