Europe wants to send a strong signal of unity to Vladimir Putin.

This Thursday, the “European Political Community” will take its first steps.

For the occasion, 44 leaders from the continent will meet in Prague, seven months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The family photo in the imposing castle which dominates the old town aims to mark the spirits at a time when the Russian president is once again brandishing the specter of nuclear weapons and when the continent fears an unprecedented energy crisis.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will speak from kyiv by videoconference.

In addition, the leaders of the 27 EU countries will stay one more day for an informal summit.

A still unclear project

Concrete translation of an idea launched in May by Emmanuel Macron, this "CPE", is a much larger gathering than the European Union (17 invited countries in addition to the 27 members of the bloc).

But behind this new acronym, we find latent tensions and countries with radically different trajectories vis-à-vis the EU: Norway, Ukraine, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, Moldova, Serbia, Azerbaijan... What a common denominator between declared candidates (and impatient) for membership, countries which know that the door is closed to them for a long time and the United Kingdom, which chose six years ago to leave the EU with a bang?

In addition, will the EPC be a long-term one or will it join the long list of short-lived projects on the continent, like the European Confederation proposed in 1989 by François Mitterrand?

Doesn't it risk, finally, becoming an antechamber in which candidates for membership wait eternally?

It is a "complement" and not an "alternative" to the process of joining the EU, assures Emmanuel Macron.

In a joint column published in

Politico

, Edi Rama and Mark Rutte, respectively Prime Minister of Albania and the Netherlands, gave their support to the CPE.

In their eyes, this initiative makes it possible to demonstrate that “all European countries”, not only the members of the EU, are united in the face of Vladimir Putin who sought to “sow division”.

However, they caution, “it should not be driven by bureaucracy, but by flexibility”.

A photo rather than a final statement

On the program for this first summit: working groups, a dinner, but no final declaration signed by all the participants.

The organizers hope for the announcement of possible concrete cooperation projects, in particular on energy.

“There is a signage challenge facing Putin which is important,” says Elvire Fabry of the Jacques Delors Institute.

But if the image of the 44 leaders together will have weight, "it will not be enough", she warns.

For the future, France hopes for a meeting in the spring of 2023 with the announcement in Prague of the name of the next host country, which would not be a member of the EU.

Moldova is in the running.

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