European leaders close ranks against Russia at Moldova summit
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00:00 more on this, we can bring in our European Affairs Editor Armin
00:03 Djordje. Armin, great to see you. Talk us through this meeting. What is it? Is it
00:08 just big on symbolism or will anything come out of this gathering? Symbolism is
00:12 very important, Delano. Also for the host, Moldova, of course, which is trying to
00:19 join the European Union and it's getting a lot of support from the EU
00:23 already. But there is a general message that this family photo that we just
00:28 played wants to show, which is that this is a political family, that it's based on
00:35 all participants committing to a similar process of political and judicial reforms
00:41 which these leaders hope will finally land these countries inside the European
00:46 Union itself and not in some kind of substitute structure. And although EU
00:52 leaders have, they keep repeating, the European political community is not a
00:58 substitute for the EU, it's a way for people in the broader neighbourhood to
01:03 gather, there are still some suspicions in some quarters that some of these
01:09 countries will be, so to speak, parked in this structure as a way of compensating,
01:14 not integrating them fully into the European Union itself. Although, as I say,
01:20 the leaders of the EU institutions keep saying no, no, that's not the case. These
01:25 countries, if they pursue this process of political judicial reforms, they will be
01:30 able to eventually join the EU. But I spoke to a senior Romanian politician, a
01:35 former minister, Victor Negrescu, about this question of the EPC. Is it a
01:38 substitute for the EU or not? Here's what he had to say.
01:43 It will allow us to have a better interaction with the countries trying to get in
01:48 the European Union, but this should not replace the process of integration. We
01:52 have to offer a European perspective for Ukraine, for the Republic of Moldova, for
01:57 the countries in the Western Balkans, and they have to get in the European Union,
02:00 not in another platform. On deliverables, Jelena, I think we'll have to see,
02:06 obviously, later on in the day. What we've heard is that there are some
02:11 potentially significant meetings happening on the sidelines in bilateral
02:16 formats because there's a lot of bilaterals and trilaterals in this EPC
02:20 summit in Moldova. So it's a chance to discuss the hot-button issues, Serbia and
02:25 Kosovo, neither of which are in the EU, but of course they're very important to
02:29 Brussels. Armenia and Azerbaijan, which are not in the EU, but the European Union
02:33 has interests in both of those countries. So we'll have to see, I think, when we get
02:39 the final communique, I suppose. And talk us through this EPC because I think it's
02:43 the first time you and I are talking about one of their gatherings. It seems
02:47 it's the brainchild of the French president? Well, that's how it's often
02:51 portrayed. Actually, if you talk to think-tank type people in Brussels,
02:55 they'll say that Macron sort of appropriated this, that the idea has been
02:59 around for more than 20 years. But certainly he, at the very least,
03:04 revived it and gave it a big push. This is actually the second EPC summit, so
03:10 it's now becoming a more kind of solid group entity, if you will. As for Macron
03:16 himself, well, he was praised, wasn't he, in Bratislava, in Slovakia, for saying
03:22 that in the past France hadn't listened enough to Central and European countries.
03:28 So his tone does seem to have shifted from those days when he said that Russia
03:32 should not be humiliated. And given off-rampage. That's right. But at the same time, Macron
03:38 also more recently, remember his quite controversial comments about Taiwan,
03:42 about how Europe should not be a follower of the United States. That kind
03:46 of talk still doesn't go down well with Central and Eastern European audiences.
03:51 So Macron, he's not one single thing, you know, he's sending these
03:55 different messages depending on the context that he's in. But to come back to
04:00 Ukraine for a second, he has been pretty consistent that Ukraine should be given
04:05 a deal with security guarantees, but one that stops short of full membership of
04:10 NATO. He has been consistent on that. He said that this week again in Slovakia.
04:15 And this puts him at odds, of course, with some of his partners in Europe.
04:21 But he insists still that this is the only really consensus solution that can
04:27 be reached, given that some people want Ukraine to be a full member of
04:31 NATO, some don't want Ukraine to be full members of NATO. We'll see what happens
04:35 between now and July. Thank you very much for that, Armen Georgian there.