Time to act

If bodies such as the EPC - which was formed last year in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine - exist partly to forge smoother relations between warring states, then this one's not doing very well. Azerbaijan's president Ilham Aliyev had requested that Recep Erdogan, his Turkish counterpart and ally in the Armenian conflict, also be present in Granada this week for a five way discussion between their respective countries, Armenia, France and Germany. That discussion became even more necessary last month after Azerbaijan's armed seizure of Nagorno Karabaj, a self-proclaimed Armenian republic that has resisted rule from Baku since the fall of Soviet Russia.

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Acting in their capacity as the largest EPC states, France and Germany denied Aliyev's request for Erdogan to be present. Aliyev then refused to travel to Granada in protest, suspecting that he'd encounter a predominantly pro-Armenian atmosphere: after all, EU Council President Charles Michel condemned Baku's forceful takeover of Nagorno Karabaj, adding that Russia (of which Armenia was a constituent Soviet Republic until 1991) had "betrayed the Armenian people" for not coming to their aid. Armenia's prime minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the two-day summit despite Aliyev's absence, and probably received a sympathetic hearing from the EU's most powerful members

Although damaging to the EPC's credibility as an international problem-solving forum, this five way standoff has created the perfect opportunity for Spain to succeed where Berlin and Paris have failed. And it's well-placed to do so, given its current status as the president of the EU Commission (although admittedly it holds that position in a limited capacity, because it has no government of its own).

Spain "strongly condemned" Azerbaijan's armed takeover of Nagorno Karabaj and urged the EU to mediate a "peaceful resolution in accordance with the UN Charter and international law". Brussels has so far failed to do that, and now the EPC is bungling the diplomatic nuances. If Spain wants anything to show for its six month-stint at the helm of the EU Commission, only half of which remains, then this is the time to act. Madrid has the opportunity to show Paris and Berlin that the adoption of a pro-Armenian stance needn't get in the way of brokering some kind of solution, even if temporary, to this decades-old conflict.