There will be a lot of hands to shake in Dublin today. Almost 50 heads of state and government are invited to the meeting of the European Political Community. Those of the 27 EU member states, but also, for example, the heads of government of Armenia, Iceland and Great Britain as well as representatives of European institutions.
The European Political Community (EPG) is an informal platform founded in 2022 made up of 47 European and Middle Eastern states that share the values of the EU. Today they meet in Dublin.
Nicolai von Ondarza, head of the EU and Europe research group at the Science and Politics Foundation, sees this as similar to dating: "You can imagine it a bit like diplomatic speed dating. Above all, it is a format in which these many heads of state and government can meet briefly in groups or bilaterally."
And one participant is particularly in focus at the meeting, whom the host, Irish Prime Minister Martin, welcomed to Dublin that evening: "President Zelensky, Volodymyr, you are more than welcome in Dublin."
Ukraine in focus
Ukrainian President Zelenskyj will probably be particularly in demand. The conversations with him are likely to focus primarily on other conversations - namely the ones that took place in Abu Dhabi this week. For the first time in about eight months, representatives of Russia and Ukraine negotiated directly with each other. About how to end the war.
A large prisoner exchange was agreed upon. All of this under the auspices of the USA. Although several European representatives were on site, they were not directly involved in the negotiations. However, US negotiator Jared Kushner said afterwards: The aim was to "try to see if we can include the Europeans so that we have a multilateral format."
And: “At the beginning and end of the meetings now and during them, we had very good interactions and discussions with our European partners,” said Kushner. Zelensky also called for the Europeans to be at the table in the evening in Dublin. It is important to decide who should represent Europe and to select specific personalities to do so.
Ukraine is hoping for something concrete
This is what the meeting of the European Community will be about. And there is one conversation in particular that is being watched: US negotiators Kushner and Witkoff, who mediated in Abu Dhabi, will arrive in the evening to speak to Ukrainian President Zelensky.
Before that, the US negotiators will visit Russian President Putin. Zelensky said: He hopes that the Americans will return with something concrete. And the Europeans? The Irish host said in the evening that a three-way conversation between Selensky, Witkoff and Kushner was planned - without the participation of an EU representative.
Goal of the community: more relevant than ever
However, the goal remains to soon have a European mediator at the table with Russia and Ukraine. It remains to be seen how far a corresponding strategy will get at the meeting of the European Political Community.
The focus of the format is primarily on exchange, says Nicolai von Ondarza from the Science and Politics Foundation. "This means that there are no clear goals in the form of summit declarations, but rather you try to show symbolic unity and then coordinate, and the results then become clear after the fact, whether the discussions resulted in something that led to larger initiatives."
The meeting in Dublin is the ninth of the European Political Community. It was founded on an initiative by French President Macron - also to send a signal of European unity in response to the war in Ukraine. This goal remains relevant four years later. For the majority of participants, the talks will continue on Friday - at the informal meeting of the EU heads of state and government.
