The new European Political Community and the reconstruction of the continent beyond the European Union – a political déjà vu?

Abstract

Emanuel Macron, President of France, in his appearance before the European Parliament on 9 May 2002, spoke about a new complementary instrument/new complementary and non-substitutive strategy applicable to the candidate countries of the European Union and called it the European Political Community. In this paper we show that the current situation on the European continent is similar to the situation after the fall of the Berlin Wall and that, on that occasion, the European Union developed two strategies for its enlargement towards Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC). One was called "pre-accession", in order for these countries to formally join the Union. The other, known as the "European Political Space", aimed at their parallel and progressive integration into other Western democratic organisations, such as the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). In this sense, there are similarities between what happened then and what is happening now with the European Political Community. The aim is to show that what served the CEEC 30 years ago can now serve the countries of the Western Balkans (Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and, in the future, Kosovo), and the countries that operate under the rules of the Neighbourhood Policy (Moldova, Ukraine or Georgia).