But it is Mr. Macron who has floated a more formed, if still vague, proposal for a new kind of arrangement, specifically in his speech on “Europe Day,” May 9, to the European Parliament.

“The war in Ukraine and the legitimate aspiration of its people, just like that of Moldova and Georgia, to join the European Union encourages us to rethink our geography and the organization of our continent,” he said.

As is his wont, Mr. Macron offered a sweeping vision of a new European Political Community — an outer circle of European states, including Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and Britain — that would be linked to the European Union but not part of it.

Such a wider circle of European states would allow Brussels to bring vulnerable countries along Russia’s border into the European fold more rapidly than full E.U. membership, which “would in reality take several years, and most likely several decades,” Mr. Macron said.