When French President Emmanuel Macron launched the idea of a European Political Community in a speech to the European Parliament in May 2022 there was much scepticism around the idea. Macron wanted to create a forum that would allow European leaders to “find a new space” to work together on issues such as security, energy, transport and infrastructure. But many member-states were unsure of the value of yet another new grouping of countries, while some countries feared that the EPC was designed to derail EU enlargement.  

These fears were largely dispelled, and the first EPC summit in Prague in October 2022 proved to be a powerful symbol of continental unity against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Forty-four leaders attended, including the leaders of all EU states aside from Denmark (due to an election), all EU candidates (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine and Turkey), plus Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and the UK. The Presidents of the European Commission and European Council and the EU High Representative for foreign policy were also present. The second EPC summit in Moldova, in June 2023, served as a strong signal of support for the country in a difficult period, which included an alleged coup attempt by pro-Russian forces earlier in the year.  

The third EPC summit, held in the Spanish city of Granada on October 5th, was supposed to consolidate the initiative. Leaders focused on digitisation, energy and climate, the war in Ukraine and multilateralism. However, the summit has been widely labelled a disappointment. First, there were high hopes that the meeting could advance the solution of the conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan (which had just retaken the Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh following a swift military intervention), and Kosovo and Serbia. Neither of these things happened. Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani refused to meet Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić, calling on European leaders to sanction him instead. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev cancelled his participation in the summit, with Azeri officials saying this was because of its anti-Azerbaijani atmosphere. Second, several other leaders did not attend the summit. The most prominent absence aside from Aliyev’s was Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s, who was unable to attend (officially due to a cold) and therefore missed his second summit in a row. Meanwhile, Kosovo was represented by its ceremonial president rather than its prime minister. Finally, the Granada summit was also shadowed by disagreements between Spain and the UK over the former’s unwillingness to include migration – a priority for the British government – in the agenda. The final press conference was cancelled, seemingly for this reason, which gave the whole event an aura of disappointment. ...

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