Editor's note: Jian Junbo is the associate professor and vice-director of Center for China-Europe Relations of Fudan University. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The first summit of the French-proposed European Political Community will be held in Prague on October 6-7, since the Czech Republic holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU for the second half of 2022.

At the closing ceremony of the Conference on the Future of Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron said, "faced with this new geopolitical context, we very clearly need to find a way to think about our Europe, its unity, and its stability, without weakening the closeness built inside our European Union." For him, the "way" is the creation of a "European Political Community."

Progress towards the 'European Political Community'

Additionally, Macron did not forget the "European confederation" as mentioned by the late French President François Mitterrand at the end of the Cold War. This would suggest that Macron's proposal is both a practical necessity and continuation of French political thinking, which leads to double legitimacy.

The French proposal was soon followed up by a broad European endorsement. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the Commission supported a European political community initiated by Macron. She said Europe should "strive to expand this core of democracies. The most immediate way – deepen our ties and strengthen democracies. This starts with those countries on the path to EU." Macron's proposal is also supported by Germany. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the French proposal would be an "interesting approach to deal with the big challenges that lie ahead of us," although he favors reforming the voting system of the Council of European Union to enhance the organization's efficiency over security and foreign policy.

Other European countries also endorse it. Those countries aiming to join the EU – associated countries, candidate countries not yet starting negotiations with the European Union, and candidate countries under negotiations – can participate in the joint management of European affairs before officially joining the EU.

There is, however one exception. UK's Prime Minister Liz Truss' cabinet remains doubtful about joining the first European Political Community summit, since it will be a new European multilateral mechanism to be dominated by the EU. The Conservative Party fears the UK must rely more on the European continent yet again after Brexit. This would be detrimental to their relations with NATO and the G7, which are the main international organizations for the UK to engage in on international affairs and to maintain its Western identity. There's also a cultural clash between the community's summit and her Conservative Party's annual conference. Nevertheless, Truss took a U-turn and already planned to attend summit.

Anyway, Czech standss obligated to invite all relevant countries. The countries welcomed include all 27 EU members and 17 non-EU countries from the South Caucasus and Western Balkans, etc. The first political community summit will discuss "energy and migration," along with many other issues that the UK needs to address.

Challenges facing the European Political Community

The summit will turn the French proposal into a practical action for Europe. Nonetheless, the political community will have to face several challenges, while Europe's response will determine its success or failure.

Let's address how to deal with the relationship of the political community with the EU and other European multilateral platforms. It is expected to provide a platform, beyond the EU, for more European countries to participate in issue-resolution on European affairs. The summit will be organized by the EU. But does it indicate if the EU will dominate the political community or not? Moreover, since the community deals with issues such as security, energy, climate, human mobility and economic development, how does the political community distinguish its functions with the Council of EU or the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe?

Meanwhile, the final form of the political community has formed a decision-making system. The European Political Community will engage in various possible forms of construction, from a full international organization to a loose talk-shop-like forum. The international organization would be based on treaties and legal norms, or an international coordinating institution with a relatively small secretariat, or a multilateral forum without organizational structure. The different forms of the community will determine its decision-making mechanism, as well as its effectiveness.

Also, how would the organization deal with the EU's expansion plans? The European Political Community intends to compensate for the temporary inability of the EU to expand rapidly, and seeks to bring the relevant neighboring countries under its influence. Nevertheless, as the EU could not achieve rapid enlargement due to strict accession preconditions and procedures, will the process of "accession to the EU" of countries such as Ukraine, the Caucasus countries and Western Balkans become even longer than before, since the political community has decreased the urgency of its enlargement?

New tool for Europe to deal with geopolitical competition

The European Political Community does not include the United States, nor it will be invited to become a full member. This indicates the community will become a new tool to promote European political integration; a new effort by Europe (especially Western Europe) to absorb its neighboring countries amid the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict; a new attempt of the core European countries to strengthen the capability to deal with European affairs in order to strengthen their geopolitical competition ability, expanding the core Europe's sphere of influence; a new way for EU countries to seek "strategic autonomy"; and a new innovation for European integration.

If a smaller Europe (EU with 27 countries) cannot solve Europe's security and strategic problems successfully, it will be worthwhile to see whether the European Political Community – a larger Europe with 44 countries – can realize its future ambitions.

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