Aimed at fostering political dialogue and cooperation across the continent, the European Political Community (EPC) aspires to bring together political will with tangible results in the areas of security, stability and prosperity. The idea of having geopolitical and geo-economic discussions at leaders’ level has been welcomed by all parties involved.
The continental-wide format remains a formidable platform for top representatives of non-EU countries to get unfiltered facetime with each other and, indeed, with EU states to discuss matters of security and connectivity. This is all the more essential when considering that the further from the ‘EU core’ (i.e. from “Brussels”) a country is, the bigger the competitive forces from 3rd country models of cooperation and development become.
But meanwhile the European Union, whose 27 member states are tied into a much tighter political and regulatory framework, is engaged in a much-awaited debate on its reform all by facing a context of heightened geopolitical competition. This may sap much energy needed to be injected in EPC.
In light of the aforementioned factors and the overbearing issues of war and peace on the continent, there is a risk for the EPC of getting stuck in a high-level but inconclusive political discussions on the most pressing issues of the day, and falling short in transitioning into the policymaking and implementation stages. On a smaller scale, the Berlin Process (BP) experienced similar challenges during its initial years.