By Giorgio Leali

Copyright politico

The picture they painted was of an event where no real business gets done, but instead is used by leaders to catch up with the peers they haven’t seen in a while or showcase policy initiatives in front of a prestigious audience.

One diplomat from a non-EU country compared the EPC to speed dating because of the big number of meetings and their short length, which leaves little room to get into details of complicated issues.

The French president launched the EPC three years ago in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine also to give Europeans countries vying for EU membership a seat at a new table. That the event hasn’t lived up to the hype is somewhat of a surprise given Macron’s reputation as a geopolitical force, especially compared with his checkered domestic record.

The last EPC, held in Albania in May, yielded few high-profile deliverables. Most people remember the event because of a video that featured bizarre, artificial intelligence-generated baby versions of the leaders present.

“I can’t think of a concrete, tangible result from the formal part of the EPC,” said an EU diplomat.

Part of the issue is the EPC is summit redundancy. European Union leaders already get together at European Councils, both formal and informal. The Group of Seven and the Group of 20 offer members and nonmembers alike the opportunity to meet on the sidelines of those summits. NATO members have the alliance’s annual summit to discuss defense issues too. And the United Nations General Assembly