European leaders meet in Moldova on Wednesday for a sprawling summit aimed at showing a united front against Russia’s war in Ukraine and underlining support for the Eastern European country’s ambitions to move closer to the West, while maintaining to Moscow at bay.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has changed the objectives and horizons of the European Union, and the number of members has been reconsidered. For this reason, Emmanuel Macron proposed in Strasbourg the creation of the European Political Community. The French president thus wanted to resemble the idea of François Mitterrand of the creation of a European confederation. “The countries of Central and Eastern Europe must not be virgin lands for ambitious merchants or new protectors,” Mitterrand proclaimed in Prague in 1991. The idea of the European Political Community has been to think of Europe beyond Brussels.
Macron imagined this Community as “a new space for political and security cooperation, cooperation in the energy sector, in transport, investment, infrastructure, the free movement of people and, in particular, of our youth”.
Now, Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, hosts the second meeting of the European Political Community, a meeting that will host a few dozen leaders from 47 countries in what the organizers call “the largest international meeting in the country’s history.” .
The image of 47 state leaders is intended to be full of symbolism: a photo of the European family, where the Ukrainian president will appear, as he did at the G-7 in Hiroshima (Japan). Volodímir Zelenski. “Today we work in Moldova,” he shared Thursday morning via Telegram. “We are building a coalition to protect our future.”
Who will not travel to Moldova will be the Serbian Prime Minister Aleksander Vucic. From the European Union they hoped to finalize a bilateral meeting between Vucic and the Kosovar prime minister, Albin Kurti, to channel relations between the two, after several days of intense violence in the border areas of the territories. At a press conference from Moldova and asked about this possibility of a three-way meeting with the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo, Borrell expressed his hope of being able to meet with the Serbian leader soon and pass him the same message of dialogue to resolve the disputes, which has transmitted this Wednesday to Kurti, with whom he met in Bratislava.
AWACS aircraft at the summit
NATO, in a statement, warned that during the summit several AWACS planes will be monitoring the airspace, which “will contribute to the protection of the Summit of the European Political Community in Moldova.” “AWACS can detect aircraft, missiles and drones hundreds of kilometers away, making them an important early warning capability,” said the NATO spokeswoman, Oana Lungescu.
The summit will deal with three basic themes; security, energy and connectivity, that will be discussed in several round tables and meetings between the leaders. “The intention is to take specific initiatives that allow us to better fight cybercrime, to better protect our infrastructures,” say sources from the Élysée.
It is also the first international summit attended by the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchezafter announcing the electoral advance.
In 2022, Moldova received the status of an official candidate to join the European bloc. Since the invasion of Ukraine, attacks to try to destabilize the country, with a Russian seal, have been valid for European countries to land in this Eastern country. Chisinau hopes that EU membership will materialize as soon as possible to avoid destabilization maneuvers led by Moscow. Ursula von der Leyen President of the European Commission, congratulated Moldova yesterday for making clear progress in its pursuit of EU membership. “It is amazing to see that, despite all the pressure, Moldova is moving forward quickly and with great quality,” she said. The EU will »significantly increase« her delegation in Chisinau to support further reforms, she added.
The CPE is a broader format than the European Union, since it adds 20 invited countries in addition to the 27 members of the bloc. With nations with asymmetries, such as Armenia, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Serbia or Azerbaijan. Furthermore, it is a geopolitical Europe that does without the United States.