There is now a way for the UK to rebuild its bridges with the EU – Labour should take the lead
Imagine it’s 2030. You can freely reside in and seek employment across the UK, the EU, Ukraine, Turkey, the western Balkans and a handful of other flourishing democracies. You cross open borders on integrated high-speed rail connections, powered by jointly financed green hydrogen infrastructure and integrated energy grids.
You feel secure as these countries ensure equitable supplies of life-saving vaccines and maintain a joint fast-response taskforce for climate disasters.
As Russia’s war on Ukraine continues, this sounds like science fiction. But it is a real prospect if the European Political Community – a new organisation that will be launched in Prague on 6 October – succeeds. Heads of government from 44 European countries including those of all 27 EU states will attend the inaugural session. The UK prime minister, Liz Truss, despite at first showing little enthusiasm for it, has said she will be there.
The European Political Community, first proposed last May by the French president Emmanuel Macron as a forum distinct from the EU, is emerging as a direct result of Russia’s war of aggression. The aim is to create a European democratic space including, but not limited to the EU. It will be a way of providing Ukraine with long-term institutional support and a clear democratic anchorage. After the 2014 annexation of Crimea, the west turned the other way; now it must avoid that mistake.
Preventing democratic back-sliding is altogether preferable to intervention elsewhere too: countries such as Georgia, Moldova, or the western Balkans will need to be safeguarded from autocratic encroachment and this community offers them a tangible path.
EU enlargement was traditionally meant to perform these functions. But enlargement is a
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