The Charter was one of many attempts to seize the opportunity of the fall of Communism by actively inviting the former Eastern Bloc countries into the ideological framework of the West.

It has been compared to the Conference of Versailles of 1919 or the Congress of Vienna of 1815 in its grandiose ambition to reshape Europe[citation needed].

In effect, the Paris Summit was the peace conference of the Cold War: Perestroika had ultimately put an end to the ideological and political division of the Iron Curtain.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher attended the summit while undergoing a challenge to her leadership of the country's ruling Conservative Party, and it was while in Paris that she learned she had not obtained sufficient votes in the first round of the party's leadership election to be declared the winner outright, necessitating a further round of voting.

Thatcher later claimed that the fact she was in Paris and unable to begin immediately rallying support was one of the factors that led to her leaving the leadership election and resigning as party leader and Prime Minister after 11 years of power.