Insight
Macron is serious about the ‘European Political Community’ by Charles Grant, 1 August 2022
French President Emmanuel Macron is committed to creating a ‘European Political Community’, distinct from the EU. European states not in the EU – including the UK – should take the concept seriously. Speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on May 9th, Emmanuel Macron called for a ‘European Political Community’ (EPC), a club to foster co-operation between the EU and its neighbours. The idea emerged from conversations between Macron and Clément Beaune, then his Europe minister and a close confidant, shortly before the speech. As a result, the bureaucratic machines of the Elysée and the Quai d’Orsay (the foreign ministry) had little chance to refine the proposal and think through the consequences. That explains why there has been some ambiguity about what kind of body the EPC would be and what it would do. The proposal had a number of rationales. One was that the EU’s neighbourhood policy was largely perceived to have failed. It had not turned the neighbours into the ‘ring of friends’ that then Commission President Romano Prodi had called for in 2004. The policy did not offer sufficient incentives for the neighbours to embrace the reforms that the EU desired; a credible prospect of accession seemed to be the only mechanism that was able to make a significant impact on neighbours. But the enlargement process had largely ground to a halt – and that was the second rationale. The six countries of the Western Balkans had been stuck in the EU’s antechamber for two decades, while Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia appeared to be heading for a similar fate. These would-be members needed to be offered something other than accession that would deliver them real benefits, quickly. Some in Paris saw the EPC as an alternative to enlargement while others thought it could be complementary. Hence Macron’s words on May 9th were ambiguous: “joining [the EPC] would not prejudge future accession to the EU necessarily”. A third rationale was the perception in Paris that more needed to be done to ‘socialise’ the British. In Strasbourg, Macron said that the EPC “would not be closed to those that have left the EU”. Officials and ministers were worried that, post-Brexit, those involved in the EU were becoming ignorant of the CER INSIGHT: Macron is serious about the ‘European Political Community’ 1 August 2022
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