EPC's Mucznik: The European Political Community: From Prague to Chisinau and beyond

31 May 2023

As war still rages on the continent one year on, the European Political Community remains a geopolitical necessity. Yet, consistent follow-up, more investment, and strategic direction are needed if the EPoC stands to succeed in addressing the challenges of a new era.

On 1 June 2023, the Republic of Moldova will host the second Summit of the European Political Community (EPoC), a Europe-wide forum created to provide a continental response to Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. 

One year after President Macron's introduction of the EPoC, the initiative still struggles to demonstrate its value. The debate still lacks clarity on the EPoC's purpose, agenda, deliverables, and structure, despite a shared consensus that its success lies in its unchoreographed nature.

Macron’s vision for the EPoC was to fill a geopolitical and geostrategic void in Europe and contribute to restoring peace and stability on the continent. The concept of a forum for informal exchanges among 47+ heads of state remains geopolitically significant. At the same time, the new security reality prompted by the war continues to justify the need for joint solutions to Europe’s most pressing issues, e.g. security, energy, migration, infrastructure, connectivity, and the war response. But for ideas to materialise, the focus should not be placed solely on the family photo at these bi-annual summits. What transpires between them is just as critical, if not more so.

This is why the success of the EPoC relies on consistent follow-up, more investment, and a clearer strategic direction.

Consistent follow-up

For the first EPoC in October 2022, 44 heads of state gathered in Prague, showcasing the forum’s potential and projecting continental unity against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. Participants’ leaders floated between roundtable discussions on peace, security, climate change, energy, and the economy, exchanging informally and bilaterally about shared challenges. Some of EPoC’s outcomes unleashed positive media coverage across Europe. It successfully facilitated a meeting between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which resulted in an agreement to deploy an EU civilian mission along the border. It provided an opportunity for EU-UK and especially France-UK re-engagement and after years of post-Brexit tensions, it paved the way for the first France-UK Summit to be held in a long time, and involved Türkiye in Europe-wide discussions on war responses.

At the press conference that concluded the summit, President Macron outlined an ambitious list of priorities identified by the leaders. These included a common strategy to combat Russian cybercrime, propaganda, and disinformation; an integrated strategy in the energy sector; a resilience fund for Ukraine, a common youth policy; and close collaboration in migration. But seven months later, no progress was made towards accomplishing any of these goals within the framework of EPoC, raising questions about its effectiveness without proper institutional support.  

EPoC achievements should be seen through. The upcoming summit in Chisinau will be organised around three roundtables focusing on security, energy, and connectivity. These work streams should follow up on priorities agreed upon at the Prague summit, and concrete outcomes and mechanisms should result from these discussions on countering hybrid threats, fighting disinformation, closer coordination in the energy sector, education or youth policy, and commitments in the migration field....

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