Leaders from 44 continent and non-European Union countries attend the first meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) this Thursday (6) in Prague, Czech Republic. The new forum for exchange on issues of common interest is an initiative launched by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The French press examines this new example and wonders if there are some countries that are opposing the positions advocated by the European Union. Among these, it is possible to mention Turkey, which is ambiguous before Europeans, and the United Kingdom, which has turned its back on the bloc.
Le Figaro said that the first meeting will take place behind closed doors and there will be no joint statement at the end of the meeting. Leaders of the 27 countries of the European bloc and Ukraine – Volodymyr Zelensky participating via videoconference – will participate in the leaders of 17 other countries, including the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and the Balkan countries.
“With the war in Ukraine, neither security, democracy, nor the economy is guaranteed. There is fragmentation in all directions, so we need to think about what we can do together,” says an EU diplomat on the pages of Le Figaro.
Controlling Russian and Chinese expansionism
Some guests want to join the European Union, but the process is so long, slow and difficult that the new group aims to encourage “cooperation on issues of common interest” and prevent those dissatisfied with the delay from losing patience and putting themselves in danger. Weapons from China or Russia, writes Figaro.
“The European Political Community has the mandate to be a new space for political cooperation in the fields of security, energy, transport, investments, infrastructure and people movement,” Macron told the newspaper in May. release. But for this progressive diary, the forum emerges as an “unidentified political object.”
Les Echos says that if the leaders manage to set a date this Thursday for a second meeting, around April 2023, it will already be an important step in evaluating Paris.
Economy newspaper reminds that the former French fortune teller François Mitterrand started a similar initiative, the European Confederation project, 31 years ago. At the time, the idea was to build a new structure that could contribute to the establishment of a new world order with the end of the Cold War. About 150 participants also gathered in Prague in June 1991. But Mitterrand’s plan did not go forward.
source: Noticias
