Ukraine, Italy confirms: «Europe will be at the table, decide format and agenda immediately»

Now we get serious, "we have to decide". «Europe will sit at the negotiating table with Ukraine, Russia and the USA», confirm Italian sources in the aftermath of the meeting in a military air base between Donald Trump's emissaries, Steve Witkoff and Jaron Kushner, and the national security advisors of the E4 format (Italy, represented by Giorgia Meloni's diplomatic advisor, Fabrizio Saggio, with France, Germany and the United Kingdom), to which a Polish exponent was added. «Today during the working lunch at the informal European Council we will discuss who and with what mandate should represent Europe at the negotiations».

The topic, the sources continue, becomes "essential" because there is finally a change of pace, after months of stalemate. This is demonstrated by the exchange of prisoners between Moscow and Kiev, "the largest ever decided so far", but also by Vladimir Putin's openness on the truce for Kostyantynivka. For this reason Meloni, with a position "shared by many countries", will insist with his EU partners. The reason is simple: «Continuing to work on parallel tables, like the Berlin group that met yesterday or the Willing Ones who will meet again on November 19th in the German capital, «only helps Moscow». In other words, «the dispersion of formats risks not being of any effectiveness for Europe».

The other Italian request is not to proceed with separate dossiers. "Everything must be put on the table": not just the security architecture, as Russia pushes us to do, but "ceasefires, energy reserves, post-war reconstruction". And we need to hurry and make a decision by the European Council in December, because two decisive events are scheduled for next week: Apec in China, where Trump will return to meet Xi Jinping on 18 and 19 November, and the new Summit of the Willing in Berlin.

Rome continues to repeat that "it is not important who sits at the table", but the sources recognize that the Abu Dhabi format - which on the sidelines of the trilateral Ukraine, Russia and USA saw the E4 advisors together with the US envoys together with representatives of NATO and the EU - "has become the point of reference" and "theoretically has balance". Also because, it is noted, «Italy, France and Germany are the three main contributors to the European Union». It was the United States that "baptized" him as an interlocutor: "The invitations came from them." This is why it "works". «However, it must also work for Europe».

The ball at the 27 and the invitation to "seize the substance of the moment".