Prime Minister António Costa promised this Thursday, upon arrival in Prague, that the “important experience” of the inaugural summit of the European Political Community will be “successful” as the current global challenges require global responses “as soon as possible”. amplified as possible”.
“This is the first summit of the European Political Community. I think it will be an important experience to see if this broader format for other ‘Europes’ outside the European Union is successful. The global problems we face – peace, climate change, the energy crisis — require the strongest possible global responses beyond the EU.”said.
“Let’s see, it’s a first experience, I hope it goes very well”added the prime minister on arrival at Prague Castle, the stage for the first meeting of the newly formed European Political Community, which will bring together 44 heads of state and government from the European continent this Thursday in the Czech capital.
When asked whether this summit is isolating Russia, António Costa emphasized that: “Russia has isolated itself because of the way in which, in clear violation of international law, it has unleashed, as it is waging, an illegal, brutal, inhumane war against Ukraine and its people.”.
With regard to expectations for Thursday’s meeting, he pointed out that the same “does not aim to draw conclusions, does not aim to draw practical results”with the aim “to be a broad forum”, “to strive to formulate policies that must be convergent, in order to overcome a global crisis together”.
Prague Castle will host this Thursday the first meeting of the newly formed European Political Community, with the 27 leaders of the European Union and 17 other countries to discuss security and peace on the European continent, in a context of war.
The meeting of the European Political Community, with a video conference of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, will thus bring together 44 heads of state and government from Europe, underlining Russia’s isolation in the face of the military aggression against Ukraine that took place in February.
This forum is the result of an idea launched last May – with the Russian military aggression against Ukraine already underway – by French President Emmanuel Macron, and ’embraced’ by the President of the European Council, the Belgian Charles Michel.
In addition to the 27 Member States of the European Union, six countries from the Western Balkans (Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro) participate in this forum, the countries of the associated trio that recently applied for EU membership (Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine), Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as the four EFTA countries, the European Free Trade Association (Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein), as well as the United Kingdom and Turkey, represented in Prague by the British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
After a plenary session with the participation of the 44 European Heads of State and/or Government of approximately one hour, in which only a few leaders will speak, there will be four roundtables for debates on topics such as peace and security, the economic situation, energy and climate , and migration and mobility, with António Costa revealing that he will participate in a roundtable on energy and economics.
After the roundtables, a space has been set aside for bilateral meetings between the leaders, concluding the work of the first meeting of the European Political Community with a new plenary session, at a working dinner in Prague Castle, with no plans to obtain any formal written approval to assume. conclusion.
This meeting precedes an informal European Council of EU heads of state or government on Friday, during which the 27 will also discuss financial and military support to Kiev, but especially the response to the rise in energy prices.
For Ukraine, Zelensky will participate via videoconference – both this Thursday and at the informal EU summit on Friday – but the Prime Minister, Denis Shmyhal, will be physically present at the European Political Community meeting, in a meeting that has generated a lot of interest in communication international social network, with 1,200 accredited journalists.
Source: DN
