The Prime Minister, António Costa, promised this Thursday, upon his arrival in Prague, that the “important experience” of the inaugural summit of the European Political Community will be “successful”, given that the current global challenges require global responses “as soon as possible “. “.reinforced 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’ beyond the European Union is successful. The global problems we face: peace, climate change, the energy crisis – require the strongest possible global responses, which go beyond the EU,” he said.
“Let’s see, it’s a first experience, I hope it goes very well,” added the prime minister, upon his arrival at Prague Castle, the scene of the first meeting of the newly formed European Political Community, which today brings together 44 heads of state and Government of the European continent.
Asked if this summit isolates Russia, António Costa stressed that “Russia has isolated itself by the way in which, in clear violation of international law, it has unleashed an illegitimate, brutal, inhuman war, as it has been doing for a long time, against Ukraine”. and the people of it.”
As for the expectations of today’s meeting, he pointed out that “it does not intend to draw conclusions, it does not intend to obtain practical results”, but that its objective is “to be a broad forum”, “to seek to articulate policies that must be convergent, taking into account to be able to overcome together a crisis that is global”.
Prague Castle today hosts 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, which will include a videoconference of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, will thus bring together 44 heads of state or government from Europe, underlining Russia’s isolation in the face of the military aggression against Ukraine launched last 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 ‘welcomed’ 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 to join the European Union. (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 The Prime Minister, Liz Truss, and the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
After a plenary session with the participation of the 44 European Heads of State and/or Government, lasting approximately one hour, in which only a few leaders will intervene, there will be four round tables for debate on issues such as peace and security , the economic situation, energy and climate, and migration and mobility, with António Costa anticipating that he will participate in a round table on energy and economy.
After the round tables, a space is reserved for bilateral meetings between the leaders, ending the work of the first meeting of the European Political Community with a new plenary session, during a working dinner at Prague Castle, with no plans to adopt no formal written conclusion.
This meeting precedes an informal European Council of EU Heads of State and Government, on Friday, in which the 27 will also discuss financial and military support for kyiv, but above all the response to the rise in fuel prices Energy.
For Ukraine, Zelensky will participate by videoconference -both today and in the informal EU summit on Friday-, but Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal will be physically present at the meeting of the European Political Community, a meeting that aroused strong interest from the international media, with 1,200 accredited journalists.
Source: TSF
