Leaders from almost all European states and organizations gathered there, except for Belarus and Russia, for obvious reasons.
Yesterday’s summit was an important one for new UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who as host made his first attempt to reorient his country towards Europe following eight years of complicated and sometimes disastrous Brexit relations.
While most of the planning and preparation for the meeting took place under the previous Conservative government of Rishi Sunak, Brussels and London are in “complimentary mode” noting how smoothly the run-up to yesterday’s summit went, while also highlighting the fact that the election caused little ‘upheaval’ in the UK.
The ongoing war in Ukraine is one reason that is bringing European leaders closer to Britain. In any case, no sudden or major reversals are expected at yesterday’s meeting, but an improved security pact between the E.U. and the United Kingdom in the fields of Defence, Energy and in the field of information sharing.
Yesterday, 47 leaders attended, including Ukrainian President Zelensky, who, addressing the Summit and the other 46 European leaders, asked himself: “Will Europe be a continent that neither surrenders nor sells itself to tyrants?” Will it be our continent of nations and communities? We will see how much the bravery of previous generations won for us and secured this Europe for us and our children.”
The subject matter
The EPC is Macron’s “brainchild” in 2022, shortly following Russia’s all-out attack on Ukraine, and aims to bring Europe closer together politically as “strategic intimacy,” as Macron originally put it. This means that leaders meet twice a year, with the host rotating between EU member states. and third countries.
This seems to be moving European leaders. First of all, because it’s short. They only meet for regarding half a day. And it tends to be hosted in spectacular places. The inaugural meeting two years ago took place in the monumental Prague Castle. This was followed by a meeting at a fine winery outside Chisinau, Moldova, and on to Granada where the leaders dined at the Alhambra and yesterday at a classic British country palace.
What was on the menu? They started with an opening plenary, a family photo, some thematic roundtables and then a closing roundtable. All this within five hours.
Afterwards, there was room for various bilateral meetings, before they attended a reception at the end hosted by King Charles III. The round tables dealt, in addition to the issue of Ukraine, with three specific ones: defense of democracies, which means coordination to combat foreign interference in issues such as electoral procedures, dealing with disinformation and fake news, migration flows as and energy connectivity.
Macron and Moldova’s pro-Western president, Maya Sandu, chaired the roundtable on the defense of democracies. This topic was extremely popular, to the point that a second debate was organized on the same topic, chaired by the outgoing European Council President Charles Michel and the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
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