A week after the NATO summit in Washington, there is another gathering of leaders. This time, it's the European Political Community (EPC) summit -- a powwow that brings together leaders from pretty much all European nations, barring Belarus and Russia, that is taking place in the United Kingdom on July 18.
More specifically, they are all descending on Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, not too far from London, the birthplace of legendary British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Perhaps the biggest spotlight will be on one of his successors, the newly elected U.K. leader Keir Starmer, who as the host of the summit will make his first real attempt to reorient his country toward Europe in general and the European Union in particular, after eight years of complicated and sometimes calamitous post-Brexit relations.
While most of the planning and preparation for the meeting took place under the previous Conservative government, Brussels is in compliments mode, noting how smooth the run-up to the summit has been and how little disruption the U.K. general election in early June has meant for the EPC gathering.
Make no mistake about it: EU types in general are excited about Starmer -- the first Labour prime minister since Gordon Brown back in 2010. They all note that the first impressions of him at the sidelines of the recent NATO summit in Washington was generally enthusiastic and the early exchanges with him have been described as “positive.” Or as one senior EU official noted at a briefing to the media recently: “It’s all been good vibes so far. Now we need to go into content.”
And there is a sense of urgency that Britain and the EU need a political rapprochement. The ongoing war in Ukraine is one reason for this, but the increasing prospect of another Trump presidency across the Atlantic is something that is concentrating minds on the continent and in the new center-left government in London.
Don’t expect any big breakthroughs at the Blenheim meeting, but further down the road you could foresee an improved security pact between the EU and the U.K., possibly stronger trade relations, and maybe even increased mobility between the two entities. We soon might see a proper EU-U.K. summit where some of these things can be thrashed out.
What About The EPC Itself?
So far, it seems that around 45 leaders are showing up, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Don’t expect much in terms of content and deliverables. The EPC has never been big on those sorts of things. The brainchild of French President Emmanuel Macron in 2022, shortly after Russia’s full-scale attack of its neighbor, it was meant to bring the rest of Europe closer politically -- “strategic intimacy,” as Macron first put it. That means that the leaders gather twice a year with the host rotating between EU and non-EU member states. And it appears the leaders quite like it.
First of all, because it's rather short. They only meet for half a day or so. And it tends to be hosted in spectacular places. The inaugural meeting two years ago took place at the monumental Prague Castle, followed by an exquisite winery outside Chisinau, then in Granada, where the leaders had dinner at the Alhambra, and now a classic British country house. Not bad settings for “political speed-dating,” which is in fact what they are doing but in much less formal structures compared to other similar bodies like the Council of Europe and the OSCE.
What's On The Menu?
They kick off with an opening plenary, a family photo, some thematic roundtables and then a closing roundtable -- all in five hours. Then there is room for various bilateral meetings, before they can attend a reception hosted by King Charles. The roundtables will deal with three specific topics: defending democracies (meaning coordination in combating foreign interference in things such as electoral processes), migration (notably cooperation on how to tackle “irregular migration” and to create legal pathways to come to Europe), and energy connectivity.
Macron and the Moldovan President Maia Sandu will co-chair the roundtable on defending democracies, which is so popular that there is a second group on the same topic co-chaired by the European Council President Charles Michel and the Montenegrin prime minister, Milojko Spajic. The prime ministers of Italy and Albania, Giorgia Meloni and Edi Rama, respectively, will host the migration roundtable. A controversial choice indeed as their two countries recently struck a much-criticized deal in which Albania would house migrants intercepted by Italian boats at sea. Slovenia and Norway will spearhead the energy roundtable.
Keep An Eye Out For...
Apart from indicative photos of who is speaking to whom, some potential bilaterals can be worth following. It was at the EPC that the EU, under Michel and Macron, attempted to get a peace deal between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan. The talks that then continued on and off in Brussels for some time have not really been successful. But there are chances that Michel might try one last stab in Blenheim before he finishes his current mandate towards the end of the year. An EU official with knowledge of the matter said there are contacts but that the format (bilateral, trilateral, or nothing at all) depends on what is the most conducive and appropriate.
And then, of course, there is the next EPC summit. It will take place on November 7 -- just a couple of days after the U.S. presidential election. So far, the deal is that the meeting will take place in Hungary with the country’s premier, Viktor Orban, as the official host. But his recent trips to Moscow and Beijing have enraged many other EU members to the point that they no longer may send ministers to various EU-related events in Hungary.
Now, the EPC is not an EU body, and so far there have been no open calls to change the location of the meeting. But can the other leaders really stomach a big gathering in Budapest, notably if a predictably gleeful Orban greets them hot on the heels of his political ally Trump capturing the White House again?
