Brussels, 16 May 2025 (MIA) - Tirana is hosting on Friday the 6th European Political Community (EPC) Summit, taking place under the theme "New Europe in a new world: unity — cooperation — joint action", with Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski also in attendance. 

President of the European Council, António Costa, will co-chair the meeting along with the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, focusing on security and a shared vision for the future of Europe. 

Leaders will discuss Europe's security, including support to Ukraine, European defence, protection of democracy, as well as readiness to respond to various threats.

In addition, three high-level roundtables will then take place around the following topics: Europe’s security and democratic resilience, including Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, competitiveness and economic security, as well as mobility challenges and youth empowerment. 

In the invitation letter for the EPC Summit in Tirana, Costa and Rama point out that Europe faces an historic moment, marked by multifaceted and complex challenges. 

"As Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine continues, its consequences stretch far beyond Ukraine's borders, straining our security and testing our collective resilience," reads the invitation.  

It notes that at the same time, our economies face renewed risks of fragmentation, undermining established economic models and testing our ability to maintain growth, resilience, and competitiveness. 

"Irregular migration and its instrumentalisation remain an important challenge, complicating efforts to ensure safe and orderly mobility and to deal with labor shortages," it adds.

Costa and Rama further point out that building on the progress of previous summits, the Tirana Summit will provide a crucial platform to enhance dialogue and deepen cooperation, in order to turn common challenges into opportunities to advance shared objectives.

The 6th meeting of the European Political Community brings together 47 heads of state and government from Europe. In addition to PM Mickoski and PM Rama, EU27 member states, EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland), as well as Azerbaijan, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, United Kingdom, Georgia, Armenia, Kosovo, Moldova, Monaco, San Marino, Serbia, Türkiye, Ukraine and Montenegro representatives will also attend the meeting. 

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, as well as NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, and of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Secretary General, Feridun Sinirlioğlu, will be among the participants in the summit. 

Ahead of today's summit, EU Council President Costa hosted a dinner for the Western Balkan leaders in Tirana on Thursday, which was also attended by von der Leyen and Kallas. 

The ambition of the European Political Community is to facilitate dialogue and cooperation among the continent’s leaders to address issues of common interest to strengthen the security, stability and prosperity of the Europe. The platform is not intended to replace any existing structure, organization, or process, but is rather a forum at which European nations can find further space for cooperation on the most pressing issues on the continent.

There have been five meetings of the European Political Community to date. At the first ever meeting in Czechia the discussion was dominated by peace, security, and energy issues stemming from Russia’s war in Ukraine. At the second summit in Moldova, leaders focused on efforts for peace and security, as well as energy resilience and connectivity and mobility in Europe. The following meeting in Spain was centred around making Europe more resilient, prosperous, and geostrategic. In the United Kingdom at the next summit, the dialogue revolved around defending and securing democracy, migration, and energy and connectivity. At the most recent meeting in Hungary, leaders discussed Europe’s security challenges, irregular migration, economic security, connectivity, and EU-US relations. 

The next meeting of the European Political Community will take place in Denmark in autumn 2025.

Photo: MIA