In its seventh meeting since 2022, the European Political Community (EPC) Summit, which opens in Copenhagen on Thursday 2 October, will address the same issues and concerns as those raised the day before by the EU27 (see EUROPE 13720/1): how to make Europe stronger and better able to defend itself against all forms of aggression and attempts at destabilisation, including Russian military aggression in Ukraine, the political interference attributed to Russia that recently marked the Moldovan elections, disinformation strategies and the threat of drug trafficking.
Initiated by France during its presidency of the Council of the EU in 2022, a few weeks after the start of the war in Ukraine, this EPC formation - which brings together 47 countries, from Turkey to the United Kingdom, including Switzerland, Armenia and Azerbaijan and the micro-States of Andorra, Monaco and San Marino - has now found its “cruising speed” and “proved its relevance”, according to a national diplomat.
The willingness now established within the 47 “to pursue these political discussions at continental level, in particular on the threats affecting it”, has also been translated into a very concrete organisation, with a fixed list of EPC Summits and host countries for the coming years (see EUROPE 13647/22) and a sort of ‘permanent secretariat’ to ensure the follow-up of all the concrete initiatives taken so far, continues this diplomat.
Nor is this forum any longer perceived by the candidate countries as a sort of antechamber for discreetly delaying their processes.
An eminently political forum, hosting numerous bilateral meetings, this 7th EPC summit will obviously be largely devoted to the war in Ukraine, with the participation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, to the EU bloc’s rearmament efforts, but also to all forms of destabilisation attributed to Russia.
In May, in Tirana, the 6th meeting of the EPC was suspended pending the outcome of the first peace talks, held the same day in Istanbul between the Russian and Ukrainian parties (see EUROPE 13642/1).
Interference. While the situation in Ukraine has not changed since then, the Russian-led war has even intensified, the Copenhagen meeting could have been held against an even more sombre backdrop, following the parliamentary elections in Moldova on 28 September. But while numerous attempts at interference were attributed to Russia, the pro-European PAS party finally emerged victorious, allowing European leaders to breathe a sigh of relief.
Yet challenges remain. In the field of disinformation and election manipulation, the 7th EPC should be an opportunity to recall the concrete initiatives launched by some countries, such as a Franco-Moldovan initiative on the fight against information manipulation and foreign interference, or the ‘Western Balkans Cyber Capacity Centre’.
This is a joint France-Slovenia-Montenegro project, based in Podgorica, Montenegro, to strengthen the region’s resilience to cyber threats and train professionals in cyber security.
As in Tirana last May, the focus will be on migration at a time when the EU bloc is tightening its legislation and some member states also want to rely on Balkan countries such as Albania to externalise their asylum policies.
Drug trafficking. As for drug trafficking, an initiative put forward by the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, is due to be presented to the members of the EPC. According to the two leaders, this will be a meeting of a European coalition to combat drug trafficking and drug smuggling, which are issues of regional stability.
“What we are seeing today is a willingness within the EPC to address the issue of drug trafficking as one of the cross-border threats affecting the whole of the European continent”, continued the same diplomat.
“It makes sense to do it at a continental level, to do it at the level of the EPC and not just the European Union, because a number of countries participating in the EPC are victims of trafficking and victims of the traffickers”.
This European coalition against drugs will bring together a number of Member States and will be presented at a meeting co-chaired by the two leaders.
It could build on the European Ports Alliance, launched by Belgium in 2024 (see EUROPE 13685/2), but also mobilise existing networks and extend them to all EPC members.
Link to invitation letter: https://aeur.eu/f/io8 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)