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Macron's vision of Greater Europe

It wasn't the first time that the French President made a big Europe speech when he presented his idea of ​​a European political community on May 9th.

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Macron's vision of Greater Europe

It wasn't the first time that the French President made a big Europe speech when he presented his idea of ​​a European political community on May 9th. He wants to create "a platform for political coordination" between the countries of the European Union and their neighbors, Emmanuel Macron said on the occasion of Europe Day at the time. It would include candidate countries like Ukraine and also former EU member Britain. This could be the "right answer", according to the French president, to "stabilize our neighbourhood". In addition to the 27 EU countries, representatives of 17 other European countries will meet in Prague on Thursday to set up the project – including Ukraine, Great Britain and Turkey. They want to cooperate in the areas of peace and security as well as energy, climate and the economy.

It is intended to be an offer to Europe's partners to be more closely involved in some issues. A spokesman for the Czech government, which holds the EU Council Presidency, told WELT. But that is not the only purpose. The new community could also give candidate countries a sense of belonging as the long accession process unfolds, allowing them some form of participation – without paralyzing the EU's ability to act. However, it should not be an alternative to EU membership, as Macron made clear at the last summit in June.

The European political community builds on the idea of ​​a two-speed Europe. President Macron is not the first to have this in mind. There are several examples from the past, most of which failed. Exceptions are the Schengen area or the euro, where not all EU members participate. Now it would be non-EU members for the first time.

Macron's idea thus envisages a Greater Europe and a Core Europe. Former French President François Mitterand proposed something similar after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Namely that the Eastern European countries, once under Soviet control, should join a loose European confederation. However, the idea found hardly any supporters at the time, instead the EU was expanded to the East in 2004.

The Union for the Mediterranean shows what fate could threaten the European political community – also an initiative from France. It was founded in 2008 as a dialogue forum between the EU countries and 15 Mediterranean countries to promote stability in the region.

At the time, French President Nicolas Sarkozy brought it up as an alternative to Turkey joining the EU. Almost ten years later, the project fizzled out.

But today the situation is different in view of the threat to Europe's security. In any case, as long as the Ukraine war continues, the European political community will have momentum. "As an informal political club, it has a real chance," says Nicolai von Ondarza, from the think tank Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) to WELT.

That the EU neighbors are very interested in more cooperation in areas of common geopolitical interest is also shown by the fact that Great Britain surprisingly took part in the first meeting in Prague, after London had kept away from the EU stage as much as possible since Brexit .

And Germany? Chancellor Olaf Scholz supports the French initiative. In a speech on European policy in Prague at the end of August, however, he emphasized: "Such a merger - which is very important to me - is not an alternative to the upcoming EU enlargement."

Because unlike France, which has long had reservations about the expansion process, Scholz is pushing for rapid progress in connecting the Western Balkan countries. Although the federal government is not against Macron's idea, it is not being sold as a Franco-German project, explains Ondarza's EU expert.

It is striking that such initiatives mostly come from France – and not from Germany. At the same time, however, Macron's problem is that he, like the European political community, usually launches his visions for the future of Europe alone - and does not coordinate them with other EU partners beforehand in order to find the necessary support.

The European political community still sees von Ondarza as more promising today: "Unlike in the past, the idea arose in the shadow of the war, at the moment of the confrontation with Russia, which is endangering the European security order." Ultimately, how sustainable the initiative will be also depends on it how serious Germany is about it.

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