European leaders have settled on a multi-country negotiating team after months of infighting, but have yet to name its members
European leaders have agreed on a negotiating team for potential participation in US-brokered Russia-Ukraine peace talks, following months of infighting over who should speak for the continent and after another round of negotiations that left Europe sidelined.
The decision, announced by European Council President Antonio Costa following an informal summit in Dublin on Friday, will see Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Poland – the E5 group within the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’, which pushes continued support for Kiev – represent Europe alongside representatives of the European Commission and the European Council, with NATO also expected to participate.
“Europe must speak with one clear and united voice,” Costa insisted, even as European leaders proved unable to agree on whose voice that should be, settling instead on a multi-country delegation he called a “team effort.” The decision came despite calls from Washington, Kiev, and Moscow for a single European envoy. Even Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had denounced the “disarray” of competing diplomatic voices.
Today the Leaders agreed that the European Team for negotiations on peace in Ukraine is the EU institutions and the E5 of the Coalition of the Willing – France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom.
Europe has yet to name its negotiators. According to Reuters, the E5 countries are expected to send national security advisers rather than national leaders, while it remains unclear who will represent the EU institutions.
The decision, however, left EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, an outspoken Russia hawk, without the lead role she had aggressively sought. Kallas insisted Friday that representing Europe was her mandate, but Costa instead cited EU treaties assigning external representation to EU leaders.
The agreement follows this week’s Abu Dhabi talks, where European representatives attended separate discussions but were excluded from the main Russia-Ukraine-US negotiations. After subsequent meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky in Dublin, US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff announced that both sides had agreed to include Europe in the next round. Kushner said the expanded format would allow for discussions of broader European security arrangements, alongside Russia-Ukraine territorial disputes.
Moscow has yet to confirm European participation, accusing EU governments of sabotaging past peace efforts and prolonging the conflict through arms supplies. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also slammed Europe’s contradictory signals – talking peace while planning to deploy troops to Ukraine, which Russia opposes – and likened its infighting over a negotiator to “spiders in a jar.”
Kushner was equally scathing: “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.”
Stratpol director Xavier Moreau told RT this week that Europe lacks a diplomatic heavyweight capable of negotiating with Moscow, citing conflicting priorities among its largest economies.
“Who is in charge of the diplomacy in the European Union? Brussels, Paris, Germany, or Italy?” he asked. Moreau argued that France faces financial constraints, Germany remains committed to supporting Kiev despite mounting difficulties, and Italy is distancing itself from the conflict while following Washington’s lead. “So a common voice in Europe, it’s not possible.”
