British PM Truss to attend European political summit in Prague -source

LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Liz Truss will attend the first summit of the European Political Community in the Czech Republic next week, a government source said on Thursday.

Truss’ advisers have also offered to host the forum’s next summit in Britain, an EU diplomatic source said.

Politico, which first reported Truss’ attendance at the summit, said the meeting will focus on the Ukraine conflict and energy security.

French President Emmanuel Macron had first proposed the idea of a European Political Community in an effort to counter Russian and Chinese influence in the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

The idea was also to ensure countries like Britain, Norway and Switzerland have a political forum to collaborate with the European Union and work on common projects, such as immigration or energy.

Some countries, however, have expressed scepticism, fearing the new grouping could be a way to keep candidates to EU membership outside the club, while others have criticised it as a new talking shop without a clear purpose.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Sachin Ravikumar in London and Michel Rose in Paris; Editing by Toby Chopra, Alistair Bell and Sandra Maler)