European Political Community: What is on the agenda for Granada summit?

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) - Top leaders of the European Political Community, a pan-European cooperation platform initiated by the European Union, will meet Thursday in the Spanish city of Granada.

Heads of state and government from the European continent will discuss strategic issues with a special focus on security issues and the war in Ukraine.

Forty-seven leaders have been invited to the meeting, including from the 27 EU member states, the UK, Switzerland and Ukraine.

They will address the most pressing international crises such as Russia’s war in Ukraine and the situation in Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region, a senior EU official speaking on condition of anonymity told reporters.

The EU’s future, digitalization, green transition of the economy and energy issues are also expected to be discussed.

This will be the third meeting of the European Political Community, which was launched in October 2022 in the Czech capital Prague to foster dialogue between European countries and to strengthen security, stability, and prosperity.

Its first meeting took place in Prague on Oct. 6, 2022 and the second summit was held in Bulboaca, Moldova on June 1 this year.

On the sidelines of the latest meeting, EU officials have prepared five-party talks between the top leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Germany, France and the EU to mediate the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev decided Wednesday to cancel his participation at the meeting as the organizers refused to include Türkiye in the talks and high-level French officials made one-sided comments in support of Armenia, according to Azerbaijani media reports.

At the same time, Aliyev said he is open to continuing talks within the Armenia-Azerbaijan-EU format.

On Friday, the 27 EU heads of state and government will gather to assess current challenges, including migration, and prepare the bloc’s five-year strategic agenda.

“Granada is the time to look back and critically assess progress in strengthening our European sovereignty, identifying our achievements as well as areas that still require our political action,” European Council President Charles Michel wrote to the leaders in his invitation letter.

The discussions will aim at enhancing the EU’s strategic autonomy and making it stronger and more competitive amid international challenges, said the letter.

The events will be hosted by Spain, which assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union in July.