Speaking for Europe key issue as leaders meet

Deciding who speaks for Europe in the event of peace negotiations with Russia is shaping up to be a key issue in today's EPC meeting, with perhaps more focus on the issue when 27 EU leaders meet separately tomorrow at the Convention Centre.

There has been a debate at EU level over the past two years over who should speak for Europe once a ceasefire is achieved.

That debate has now been heightened by US President Donald Trump's announcement that an overarching deal could be in the mix with Russia that would reshape Europe’s post-Cold War security architecture.

Senior EU and NATO figures have been aghast at any notion of a deal between the Trump administration and the Kremlin that might tamper with the settled security architecture of the Continent.

This is in light of President Trump relaxing sanctions on Russian diesel and a slowdown in the Starlink and Starshield satellite service which prohibited Ukraine from defending itself against Russian ballistic missile and jet-powered drone attacks (Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky this morning complained that the service had once again been slowed).

Russia has long resisted any European presence around the table, preferring to hatch a deal directly with the Trump administration. However, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner now accept that the EU must be involved.

"We need to have the Europeans at the table," Mr Kushner said in Abu Dhabi after two days of talks between US, Ukrainian and Russian delegations.

"We have relayed to President [Vladimir] Putin directly several times and to his team that the only way to get this done is to have them by our side, and I think they are receptive to it."

However, Mr Kushner could not avoid the jibe 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 negotiation."

Europe's overlapping institutions mean that has been a struggle.

The continent’s posture towards Russia is mostly underwritten by NATO and the transatlantic alliance.

In preparation for a post-ceasefire security guarantee, there is also the Coalition of the Willing, a potential peace-enforcing capability led by UK, France, Germany, and Ukraine, but with 36 countries in all - including Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Turkey - represented (Ireland has attended coalition meetings, but any military involvement seems hypothetical at this point).

The European Union is now the biggest financial donor to Ukraine and it regards the country’s accession as one element of a post-war security guarantee.

Between them, the EU, UK and Norway have provided some €300 billion in support for Ukraine.

At EU level, the question quickly arises as to which single figure should represent the bloc in any negotiations with Russia.

Kaja Kallas is the EU's foreign policy chief, representing member states and also the European Commission. A former Estonian prime minister, whose grandmother and great-grandmother were deported to a Siberian gulag by Russian occupying forces, she has long been seen as a hawk on the Russia question.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has a powerful profile on the world stage, but it is unclear if member states would hand her the role of negotiating directly with Russia.

Antonio Costa, the former Portuguese prime minister, is president of the European Council, meaning he represents 27 EU leaders (in June his chief of staff Pedro Lourtie held a number of phone calls with Russian officials close to Putin, contacts which were approved by President Costa).

Asked on his arrival at today’s EPC summit about who should represent Europe, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said there were some obvious candidates it did not necessarily have to be one person.

"But there should be clear, coherent leadership from the European Union at that table.

"There are some obvious candidates there, but I'm not going to speculate among those other than to say there is clearly a need for a coherent voice agreed by the EU27 as to who."

Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden told reporters on arrival: "I believe that we have a natural person to represent the European Union. That is the President of the European Council when we talk at the leaders' level, and therefore I am supporting the presence of President Costa."

Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, told reporters in Dublin: "I would say rather than who, I would like to make sure that we have a united, coherent and consistent voice, I think that is what our partners need. It is what Ukraine needs, and we will support any measure for that to happen."

Things came to a head 10 days ago when Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wrote to President Costa sharply criticising what she viewed as the EU's uncoordinated efforts to agree a single coherent voice.

This followed a meeting in Miami involving US, Ukrainian and Russian figures, as well as President von der Leyen’s chief of staff Bjoern Siebert, and a follow up phone call to Vladimir Putin by the leaders of Norway (not an EU member) and Finland.

"Proceeding in disarray, with initiatives that chase and overlap one another, will not help us, either with our partners or with those we must convince to stop a senseless aggression. [...] All of this is making us less credible," said the letter.

She also criticised the proliferation of negotiating groups, such as the E3 (Germany, France and the UK), the Coalition of the Willing, and the "Berlin format", composed of Germany, France, Poland and representatives of NATO, the G7 and the EU.

"Europe needs to speak with a single voice on the Ukrainian question. This need can no longer be postponed," she wrote.

Leaders will get to grips with the issue tomorrow when they meet for an informal EU summit at the Convention Centre.

By then President Zelensky will have been briefed by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on prospects for any movement on peace negotiations.