The European (Geo)Political Community: more than meets the eye?

The inaugural summit of the European Political Community (EPC) in Prague on 6 October 2022 is seen as an endeavour to keep all Europeans—EU and non-EU members—united against Russia’s revisionist purposes and its aggressive policies. However, the emergence of the EPC once again brings to the fore the never-ending discussions on differentiated integration and a Europe of concentric circles. European leaders have been quick to couple Russia’s aggression against Ukraine with the ultimate birth of a ‘geopolitical European Union’. The EU’s response to the war has been a success in multiple domains of foreign, security and defence policies. Sanction packages against Russia have been adopted with a remarkable degree of unity, including by Orban’s Hungary, which continues to combine negotiations in Brussels with proximity to Moscow.