Estonia wants Costa and Kallas to speak for Europe in Ukraine peace talks

Estonia called for European Council President António Costa and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas to represent Europe in Russia-Ukraine negotiations, as leaders grapple with who should have a seat at the negotiating table.

“Europe has already chosen its representatives: Council President António Costa and [High Representative] Kaja Kallas. Both are clearly accountable to EU countries,” Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal told POLITICO.

The matter is set to come up at an informal European Council summit in Dublin on Friday, at the behest of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who said in a letter to Costa that Europe’s approach has been “all over the place” and risked prolonging the war. Costa subsequently agreed to prioritize the topic at the talks in Ireland.

Michal said Costa and Kallas’ “mandate comes directly from the Council,” meaning that “there is no need for an ad hoc plan to be agreed between member states first.”

The question of who should speak for Europe has taken on greater urgency as U.S.-led efforts to broker an end to the war gather pace. This week’s three-way talks in Abu Dhabi involved representatives from Russia, the U.S. and Ukraine — with the EU represented by senior civil servants in a separate, wider meeting.

The leaders of Finland and Norway held a 90-minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, in a rare contact between Europe and the Kremlin.

But in a sign of the divisions among leaders about who should lead Europe’s negotiating efforts, the three-way conversation drew sharp criticism from Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who said she was “skeptical” of the initiative. “I think we should keep Europe united rather than going it alone,” she said.

Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump and one of the main American negotiators with Russia and Ukraine, said this week that “if Europe could identify one person to speak on their behalf, that would be a bigger achievement than getting the Russians to include them in the negotiations.”

Too bad

The summit in Dublin is not expected to produce a formal decision to select an envoy, according to a senior EU official granted anonymity to discuss the plan for the proceedings, but rather an “understanding” among leaders about who should relay Europe’s position to the Kremlin, with the actual choice to be made later.

According to EU law, the bloc is represented on the world stage by the European Council president — Costa, currently. “The interests of the European Union must be represented by its institutions, in accordance with the Treaties,” he wrote in response to Meloni’s letter, appearing to hint that he was up for the job.

Costa’s head of Cabinet Pedro Lourtie contacted officials in Moscow twice in June to establish a channel of communication, infuriating some leaders, POLITICO reported at the time.

Kallas also has foreign policy competence as the bloc’s High Representative. But her critics have long argued the former Estonian prime minister is too hawkish on Russia and would not be able to negotiate in good faith with Moscow.

“There is no need to appoint anyone new. If Russians don’t like it, too bad,” Michal said. “We should be represented by those we trust and who are accountable to the EU, not by those who Putin likes.”

Not everyone is on board with the EU institutions taking a leading role in the negotiations. Marine Le Pen, France’s poll-leading far-right presidential candidate, wants to drastically reduce Brussels’ diplomatic role.

Fabrice Leggeri, an MEP from Le Pen’s RN party, insisted Costa and Kallas could not speak for France.

“There is no diplomatic competence for the European Union,” he told POLITICO. “We should keep this at the level of our nations … I can hardly imagine that we would expect that the EU, that Costa or Kallas, would speak on behalf of France.“