This is not the way in which EU policy is supposed to be carried out, but the format of Paris exposes the gravity of the geopolitical shock which is currently going around the continent. The rationalized summit is a sign that patience is thin with the meetings of the exasperating EU council, where countries do not often get along on proposals, or dilute them to non-allt.
The task for people gathered in the Palais d’Elysé was to sketch a plan to adapt to new brutal realities of life without American protection. How can Europe help Ukraine win the best possible peace agreement? And how can European nations continue to defend themselves against Russia now Donald Trump is moving away?
These are questions that the officials and politicians from EU member countries have been chewing largely from the past two years. However, they were still amazed when Trump announced last week that he spoke to Vladimir Putin and would open negotiations at the end of the war “immediately”.
The rally exhausted in Paris was an eloquent act of the limits of heavy processes and focused on the consensus of the EU with regard to basic foreign policy. In the search for the unanimous agreement on the Russian sanctions, the Orbán of Hungary has been a repeated obstacle to the new measures since the large -scale invasion of Moscow Ukraine three years ago.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, has justified a reduced process. “For several days, as you can imagine, consultations have been underway on the convocation of this mini-summit, bringing together the largest and most committed European and geopolitical matters.”
An official of the Macron office explained that the summit (which they did not want to call a “summit”) just marked the start of a conversation. “For reasons of, say, practicability,” continued the manager, discussions would begin “with a limited number of partners and may continue in other capitals, with others.”
Politices
