Europe has reached a meeting point on how it should be sitting at the negotiating table to achieve peace in Ukraine if Russia finally accepts its participation, something for which the United States has redoubled pressure in recent hours. It will do so with a large team that will include the EU and five countries: Germany, France, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom. A complex solution to a coordination problem that the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, pointed out a couple of weeks ago, and that has caused exchanges of letters and consumed hours of debates.
The designation of an interlocutor by Europe had also been a demand of one of the US envoys to the peace negotiations, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in the last round of talks, held on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi. This Friday the Kremlin spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, joined in: “If the Europeans have someone authorized to speak and they wish to speak, we will do so.”
That, however, is not easy. The EU as a whole wants to be present. Also the large countries of the continent. And those closest to Russia fear being left out and that some kind of agreement will be reached that leaves them out.
Thus, the solution found has been that of a broad group that includes, on the one hand, the community institutions, which are helping Ukraine with tens of billions and which in their treaties designate the president of the European Council as the person in charge of international relations at the level of heads of state and the high representative for Foreign Affairs at the level of ministers.
On the other are the large countries of the continent, with Germany and France at the head, and the United Kingdom, which is not part of the EU but is providing a lot of military aid to the invaded country. There is also Poland, which has emerged as one of the harshest voices against the Kremlin. And Italy, which refuses not to be present at the table. Spain, which has not been represented in this informal European Council, will not be part of the group.
"We have to integrate all these elements. That is why it is essential to have a team and speak with a single voice. That is precisely what we have decided to do and the way we are working," justified the president of the European Council, the Portuguese António Costa. Sources from other delegations also supported this choral formula in which this complex reality is reflected. "We decide who represents us, and that is what we have done today [for this Friday]. We have made a decision on how the 27 sovereign States and the EU institutions are going to be represented," he added.
In the press conference after the Council, Costa also made a reference to the EU treaties, which is a way of pointing out that Kaja Kallas, high representative for EU Foreign Policy, will also be in the group when required by the level of the delegation or the meetings. The Estonian politician, one of the harshest voices against Moscow during these years, has been very belligerent during these days in Dublin so as not to be left out of the group: "I am the one who represents Europe in foreign policy. I know that the Russians don't love me, but do we decide anything about who represents Russia?"
The entry position of the greats was made clear by the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz. Before addressing this issue, he defended the “effectiveness” of the formats that were born in these years of war to coordinate the European position. Merz was talking about E3 (Germany, France and the United Kingdom) or E5 (the big three plus Italy and Poland, the formula finally chosen).
The design of how Europe has to be represented in the negotiations has sharpened in recent weeks, after talks that for a long time seemed to be frozen have been revitalized. Furthermore, on this occasion, Washington has shown interest in the presence of its partners. “Both parties [in reference to the two countries at war] have agreed to include our European partners in the next round of negotiations,” said Kushner, on the social network Representatives of all the parties that will finally integrate the European group were already present at the meeting, as published by the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk.
Kiev joins Washington. It is less clear whether Moscow accepts the European presence. Peskov has said that if “the Europeans want to talk,” they will. But he has also indicated that the Kremlin wants to evaluate his “real intentions” without committing to accepting his presence at the negotiating table. “Once we know their true intentions and their willingness to contribute to the peace process, we can make a decision on holding a dialogue on the peace process in Ukraine in an expanded format,” he added.
This week, the three parties that have so far negotiated a way out of the invasion have reached an agreement for a new prisoner exchange, the largest since the start of the full-scale invasion. The fundamental differences, however, remain. Moscow occupies about a fifth of Ukrainian territory and kyiv refuses to give up the part of the eastern Donbas region that it still controls.
