THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION Towards a new legislative term

THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 34 institutions, or future negotiators, to be less rigorous or soften criteria applied to the these candidates in the ac- cession negotiations. As the war will finish one day, we hope with the best possible outcome for Ukraine, the EU might find that it has incorporated countries that were not ready which might cause it serious difficulties. The European Political Community There are 49 sovereign states on the continent of Eu- rope, including the Eurasian countries, Russia, Türkiye, Cyprus and the Southern Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbai- jan, Georgia and excluding any without international recognition, such as Kosovo. Of these countries, 27 are members of the EU. Another three, Iceland, Liechten- stein and Norway, form part of the European Economic Space, in other words they have access to the EU’s in- ternal market. Furthermore, the EU has specific treaties with Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Out of the remaining 18, four are micro-states which depend on their neighbour states for everything except internal administration: Andorra, Vatican City, Monaco and San Marino, and eight, as we have seen, are candidates to join the EU. The five missing from the list are Russia, Belarus and the three Southern Caucasus countries. All these states, except Russia, Belarus and the Vatican – which holds an observer role – also form part of the Council of Europe, which aims to protect human rights, democracy and the Rule of Law. In May 2022, the French President, Emmanuel Ma- cron, proposed a new pan-European initiative, the Eu- ropean Political Community (EPC), although – like the Council of Europe – it would exclude Russia and Be- larus. In fact, the initial goal was political coordination throughout the continent, including eastern countries, to oppose Russia’s attack on Ukraine and any pressure that Russia might put on other countries.Although some candidate countries were initially reticent, wary that this might represent an alternative to their accession, this initiative did not intend to interfere with that process. It rather responds to the fact that accession for candidates, and others in the future such as the Caucasus countries, will surely take a long time, and in some cases – such as Türkiye – might never happen. Furthermore, other countries maintain economic relations, either through the European Economic Space or bilaterally, although there is no European political and strategic organisation that includes all of them. For the time being, the EPC does not plan to institu- tionalise or set up its own structure. It merely intends to act as a forum for debate and informal, flexible agree- ments, with two meetings a year: one in the country holding the presidency of the EU and the other in a can- didate country. The first summit was held in Prague in October 2002, attended by all the EU States, including Kosovo, except for Andorra, Monaco and San Marino, and – of course – neither Russia nor Belarus was there, a total of 44 countries plus the presidents of the Eu- ropean Council and the Commission. This meeting out- lined the fields of interest for this forum, summarised as security, including energy security and communications and information security, and connectivity, both for in- frastructures and digital and economic connectivity. In practice, this is an attempt to unite the EU with the other European countries against Russia and Belarus. The second summit took place on 1st June 2023 in Bulboaca, Moldova. In addition to the previous at- tendees, Andorra, Monaco and San Marino were also present, bringing the total to 47 states, reflecting the same composition of the Council of Europe, plus Kosovo, which is not part of it. This meeting focused on support for Moldova, political help against any coercion from Russia and economic support to help it with Ukrainian refugees, and on asserting the intention to continue backing Ukraine in all aspects, in its prevention against the Russian invasion. To a certain extent, the EPC duplicates the Council of Europe although its aims differ. The new initiative is geo- political and closely related to the continent’s current crisis. Consequently, it is worth asking whether it will still be necessary when the war ends and the current or future candidates join the Union, or whether it will seek to survive by redefining its areas of interest.