5th October 2022
You would not think that that Europe wants more political organisations: there is the European Union and the Council of Europe and the European Free Trade Association and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and so on.
But there is now to be a new one: the European Political Community, which is to meet in Prague later this month.
When I heard this name, it seemed familiar.
This is because there was once another proposal for a European Political Community at the same time as the European Coal and Steel Community (which preceded the European Economic Community) and the aborted European Defence Community (which was rejected by the French).
You will see the European Political Community of 1952 was a grand and ambitious federalist proposal, but it never got off the planning desk after the failure of the European Defence Community.
The ideas which were behind it however became part of the European Economic Community and then the European Union.
Seventy years later the same name is now being used for what appears to be a purely intergovernmental exercise, with no shared institutions.
This is a good thing: one forum for all European countries is a talking-shop which is well worth having, without courts and commissions and treaty obligations.
And, rather wonderfully, it is going to be covered by Eurovision – showing that entity has a role beyond song contests.
The European Union should never be equated with “Europe”.
They are not the same.
The European Union comprises 27 of (about) 50 European countries – just over half.
This new organisation is a boon for genuine Europeanism.
Let us hope that it is more successful than its 1952 incarnation.
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