US and Russia know Ukraine deal impossible without Europe, Taoiseach says

Washington and Moscow both know there can be no peace agreement or settlement ending the war in Ukraine without the input of Europe, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said following a summit of European leaders in Dublin.

The terms of any ceasefire would have ramifications for the wider Continent, beyond states in the European Union, Martin told a press conference following the high-level political summit.

The European Political Community (EPC) meeting brought together 44 European leaders in Dublin, plus the heads of several EU institutions and Nato’s secretary general. Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney attended as a non-European guest.

The ninth meeting of the EPC was dominated by the Ukraine war and the resumption this week of US-brokered efforts to press for a peace settlement.

“Russia continues to be focused on escalating the war, it has yet to demonstrate it prioritises peace over dominance,” European Council president António Costa told the concluding press conference.

The idea of strong powers establishing zones of influence over different corners of the world was something that belonged in the “dustbin of history”, Costa said.

Turning to negotiations concerning the Ukraine war, he said the future of European security “cannot be discussed and decided without Europe”.

The EPC forum was originally set up in 2022 to deepen political ties between the leaders of European countries in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

There had been a new acceptance that the broader European group of nearly 50 countries should do more to co-operate on combating “hybrid” interference and meddling, the Taoiseach said.

The EPC format meets twice a year and the job of hosting rotates every time between an EU state and a European country outside of the union. The next meeting will take place in Zurich, Switzerland, in April.

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In his address to the EPC, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the Europeans needed to be a regular feature in future multiparty negotiations aimed at working out a truce in the war.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s defences along the frontline remained strong, despite a shortage of Patriot air defence interceptors to take out Russian ballistic missiles and drones.

The Ukrainian leader repeated his calls for tougher economic sanctions to squeeze Russia’s wartime economy and make it harder for Moscow to continue its war.

The EPC will be followed by a summit of EU leaders on Friday. The back-to-back meetings are being held in Dublin because the Republic holds the rotating Council of the EU presidency for the second half of this year.

A significant security operation was in place around the Convention Centre, where the summits are being held, and the National Gallery, where an official dinner was put on for visiting leaders on Thursday evening.

The Government had proposed the EU summit’s agenda solely focus on artificial intelligence. However, the resumption of peace talks will see developments related to Ukraine become a significant point of the discussions now too.

Speaking on Thursday, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the Brussels-based executive would soon present a list of options for how the EU could find €45 billion to help fill a large hole in Ukraine’s wartime budget for the coming year.

The commission president said Brussels officials would table a new package of economic sanctions targeting Russia before the end of this month, to increase the pressure on Moscow.

It is expected EU leaders will ultimately agree to borrow €45 billion to loan to Ukraine, relying on the union’s common budget to raise the money collectively. A decision on that financial support package is not anticipated to be taken at the Dublin summit, but likely later this year.