L’Express: What should we expect from this second summit of the European Political Community (EPC) in Chisinau?
Jean-Dominique Giuliani: This summit first sends a strong message of solidarity vis-à-vis Moldova, this country of three million inhabitants which is the target of Russian destabilization attempts. On May 30, the 27 member states of the European Union adopted sanctions against seven Moldovan and Russian politicians and businessmen accused, among other things, of planning violent protests and financial embezzlement. This EPC forum is a new opportunity to unite around Moldova.
Another powerful symbol is this meeting of fifty countries from the European continent, at the very moment when the Council of Europe is failing and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is paralyzed by the attitude of Moscow. The CPE is one of the tools capable of opening up a new space to allow all Europeans of goodwill to talk about security and cooperation in a concrete way.
Given the existing fractures within Europe, on what points can these leaders agree to move forward?
Europe was built on its differences, its project was born from the observation that we did not agree on anything a priori! Fractures indeed remain, but its progress is considerable. Who could have said that at the first EPC summit last year, Armenia and Azerbaijan would sit around the table to start talking? This meeting contributed to calming relations between the two countries. For this second edition, other topics will be on the agenda. The very principle of bringing together 50 leaders at a time of the return of balance of power and de facto policies in international relations is to be welcomed.
Does the informal nature of this meeting seem appropriate to you in order to avoid the usual tensions and postures at the Council of Europe?
This format seems very modern to me, it has been practiced for a long time in companies and allows managers to talk to each other outside the straightjacket of procedures – with heads of state who do not belong to the EU -, but also to to address Turkey, which is not negligible, and even to renew a link with the United Kingdom, without a hysterical fringe of the conservative party opposing it, as on the Northern Irish protocol…
We can clearly see the difficulties of the European Union on the geopolitical level today, which struggles to go beyond procedures and treaties. We lacked a real political forum, which was the Council of Europe in its early days – at the initiative of Churchill in 1949 – then the OSCE in 1975, an initiative of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing which was much criticized in wrong at the time, including by François Mitterrand, who called him “a little telegraph operator from Moscow”. In fact, the OSCE has proven to be very useful in stabilizing the continent. Giscard had been a visionary in anticipating the fall of the USSR.
This initiative was launched by French President Emmanuel Macron, whose positions on Europe are far from achieving consensus. Can this harm the CPE?
I do not believe that. I have the feeling that Emmanuel Macron has understood his mistakes, which are more in the choice of words than in his action. But France’s position will indeed be eagerly awaited. This forum will show that Europe is no longer confined to countries that have remained on the right side of the iron curtain. It is the Europe-continent, no longer Western Europe. We will have to learn to reckon with these Eastern European countries, not only the largest, Poland, but also the Baltic States, the countries of Central Europe like Bulgaria or Romania: they all really want to be Europeans and they are more satisfied with French and German speeches.
Should this summit remain informal, or should it be structured a little more?
At the risk of surprising you, I am for the most informal formula possible. The primary objective of this initiative remains to bring peace and stability to the continent. This could then adopt an OSCE-type format, or the Helsinki Accords. We can also imagine alliances and security agreements to stabilize a situation. I see that Kosovo is on fire again. In the Balkans, Europe will also have to deal with the impatience of these countries, which want to join the EU. It’s easier to manage if we manage to bring everyone together around the table – including Turkey, which can help negotiate a grain agreement in the Black Sea. As for security issues, can we really advance them without the British?