The European Political Community (EPC) aims to enhance and channel dialogue and cooperation throughout the continent with a focus on security, stability, and prosperity. Yet amidst the labyrinthine challenges of geopolitics, the EPC finds itself at a crossroads, teetering on the edge of high-level dialogue while still searching for its real purpose before it can make a substantial impact.
Lessons learned from the Berlin Process and other connectivity-driven initiatives in southeast Europe could teach the EPC’s proponents (France, as its founder and chief cheerleader, the upcoming EPC Presidencies and other like-minded states) how best to apply the political will it has generated into concrete transnational endeavours.
The EU’s Global Gateway, the cornerstone of a new European approach towards third countries that integrates multi-layered connectivity into external relations, would also stand to massively gain from seeking synergies with the EPC.