PRAGUE, Oct 6 (Reuters) – The European Union and its neighbours from Britain to Turkey met on Thursday to debate shared safety and power issues stemming from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in a uncommon and symbolic summit of 44 European international locations – however not Russia.
The Prague gathering is the inaugural summit of the European Political Community (EPC), a format that could be a brainchild of French President Emmanuel Macron and brings collectively the 27 European Union members with 17 different European international locations.
Some of them are ready to affix the bloc whereas one other, Britain, is the one one ever to go away it.
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“All those who are gathered here know: Russia’s attack on Ukraine is a brutal violation of the peace and security order that we had over the last decades in Europe,” mentioned German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
“We don’t accept that part of a neighbouring country is annexed.”
His feedback have been echoed by Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, in addition to the highest EU diplomat, Josep Borrell.
“This meeting is a way of looking for a new order without Russia. It doesn’t mean we want to exclude Russia forever, but this Russia, (President Vladimir) Putin’s Russia, does not have a seat,” mentioned Borrell.
British Prime Minister Liz Truss, after assembly the summit’s host, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, burdened their “strong agreement on the importance of likeminded European democracies presenting a united front against Putin’s brutality”.
Her determination to attend the summit left some hoping for a hotter tone between the EU and London after Brexit, the place the 2 are nonetheless in disagreement over commerce points round Northern Ireland.
The gathering on the sprawling Prague Castle is seen by its advocates as a grand present of solidarity for a continent mired in a number of crises from the safety fallout of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine to dire financial penalties together with an acute power crunch.
Macron mentioned his precedence was to construct extra electrical energy connections in Europe, and decrease fuel costs.
“We share a same space. Very often, the same history. And we are meant to write our future together,” he mentioned. “I hope we will be able to get common projects.”
NO DECISIONS
Beyond lofty declarations, there have been doubts concerning the discussion board’s concrete targets and actions.
Latvia’s Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins mentioned no choices have been anticipated on the symbolic gathering the EU had pitched as solely an “initial exchange” of ideas.
“The primary goal is that we all come together because Russian war in Ukraine is affecting all of us in the security sense and also through our economies, through the rising energy costs. The only way to handle this is working together,” he mentioned.
Some dismissed the EPC swiftly as simply one other speaking store, one which will likely be tough to handle not simply due to its dimension but additionally due to its variety and the normal rivalries between a lot of its members, from Armenia and Azerbaijan to Greece and Turkey.
The 27 EU international locations will go on to fulfill on their very own on Friday, with tensions enjoying out over Germany’s 200 billion euro ($197.50 billion) power help bundle that a lot of its friends see as damaging competitors on the bloc’s single market.
In their assembly, EU international locations will take a look at their variations about cap fuel costs to comprise hovering power prices which can be harming the post-COVID financial restoration.
($1 = 1.0127 euros)
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Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Michel Rose, Robert Muller, Jan Lopatka, Michel Kahn, Jason Hovet, Andreas Rinke in Prague, Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels; Writing by John Chalmers and Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Josie Kao, Frank Jack Daniel and Frances Kerry
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