What is the outcome of Emmanuel Macron’s tour in Eastern Europe?

Emmanuel Macron returned to France after two stages on the eastern flank of Europe. The first in Slovakia for the Globsec, forum on security and the second in Moldova where the second summit of the European political community welcomed 47 European leaders including Volodymyr Zelensky. The French president delivered a clear message of support for Ukraine. But concretely, what should we remember from this tour in Eastern Europe?

Enlarge the EU to candidates who want to enter it

The Head of State has clarified his vision: he wants the European Union to be enlarged “as quickly as possible” for candidates who want to join it. But this cannot be done, he warns, without a reform of the way Brussels operates. “We are already operating too slowly at 27. Nobody can credibly say that at 8 more we are going to operate better. That is not true. And so, at the same time we are going to have to accelerate in the opening , we are going to have to accelerate in the ambition of the reforms, their simplification and the clarification of our purposes”, underlines the President of the Republic.

Another issue is that of Ukraine’s integration into NATO. On this point, the executive procrastinates and announces that it will be complicated in the immediate future. Finally, in concrete terms, this summit resulted in the creation of a European cyber reserve and cooperation on the securing of critical infrastructures. As for the very recent format of the European political community, although it is hailed for its informal nature, certain countries such as Germany would like it to be less restrictive with only one meeting per year instead of two. The next one is scheduled for Spain on October 5th.