On Monday (9 May), French President Emmanuel Macron proposed a new “political European community” that would allow Ukraine and other countries currently outside the EU framework to become more closely linked with the EU.
Macron said such a move would help to rebuild Europe’s security infrastructure, which has been destroyed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
“Now, the war in Ukraine and the legitimate aspirations of [Ukrainians], like those of Georgia and Moldova, who want to also join the EU, mean that we have to rethink our geography and the organisation of our continent’’ Macron told citizens and politicians during the final event of the Conference on the Future of Europe.
“This new political organization would allow democratic European nations that adhere to our core values to find a new space of political cooperation, of security, of cooperation in terms of energy, of transport and to invest in infrastructure where people could circulate, particularly young people,” he said.
Macron, on the other hand, didn’t detail how the new framework would operate politically in practise, instead citing François Mitterrand’s plan for a “European Confederation.”
According to French President Emmanuel Macron, the new structure would make it easier for Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Western Balkan nations, and “those who have left the EU” to join a political Europe.
“The EU, given its level of integration and ambition, cannot in the short term be the only way to structure the European continent,” Macron stated.
“To join it would not necessarily prejudge of any future membership of the EU, just as it would not be closed to those which have left the latter,” he added.
“It’s a way of anchoring countries which are geographically in Europe and share our values”, Macron told reporters afterwards, in a reference to those countries.
Macron’s involvement comes as EU member states disagree on how promptly to go on with Kyiv’s membership application, which is anticipated to get a favourable European Commission assessment in June.
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