Founding summit in Prague: EU wants to close ranks with neighbors - "new order without Russia"
Created: 10/06/2022 11:29 am
By: Bedrettin Bölükbasi
The EU founding summit in Prague is intended to bring the EU and its neighborhood closer together in the background of the Ukraine war.
However, key questions remain unresolved.
Munich/Prague - The Ukraine war poses major challenges for Europe, both politically and economically.
In the face of Vladimir Putin's war of aggression, European countries now want to move closer together and take their neighborhood with them.
The “European Political Community” created on the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron is gathering in the Czech capital of Prague on Thursday (6 October).
EU founding summit: European Union and neighbors meet in Prague - "Order without Russia"
The heads of state and government from a total of 44 countries were invited to the summit.
In addition to the 27 EU countries, these are Ukraine, Turkey, Great Britain and Switzerland.
Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and the six Western Balkan states of Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo were also invited.
In his Europe speech on May 9, Macron said the inaugural summit was intended to create "a platform for political coordination" between EU countries and their neighbors.
This could "stabilize our neighborhood".
A spokesman for the Czech government told Die
Welt
that the Community should be an offer to Europe's partners to be more closely involved on some issues.
The first meeting will deal, among other things, with Russia's war against Ukraine, the energy crisis and the economic situation.
"The meeting strives for a new order without Russia," the Washington Post
quoted
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell as saying in the run-up to the summit.
That doesn't mean we want to exclude Russia forever, but that Russia - Putin's Russia - has no place here."
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EU founding summit: Scholz supports with condition - expert doubts the added value of the format
The summit is also particularly important for candidate countries among the participants, as it could provide a sense of belonging.
Germany supports the initiative of the French head of state.
However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) made a clear condition in a speech in Prague at the end of August: "Such a merger - this is very important to me - is not an alternative to the upcoming EU expansion."
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In addition, there are still unanswered question marks floating in the room.
Janis Emmanouilidis from the EPC, a think tank for European politics in Brussels, doubts the added value of the format.
According to the "Tagesschau", it is unclear to him exactly what the round will deal with and what the result could be.
The joint participation of hostile nations such as Armenia and Azerbaijan as well as Turkey and Greece make it even more difficult to find a common denominator.
A concrete result from the summit seems unlikely, especially since, according to the
German Press Agency
, no joint final document is planned.
Certainly not the best sign in the first meeting.
Nevertheless, experts also see hope for the future of the format.
"As an informal political club, it has a real chance," emphasized Nicolai von Ondarza, from the think tank Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in an interview with Die
Welt
.
(bb)