Europe Agrees on Team for Ukraine Peace Talks

By Staff, Agencies

European leaders have agreed on a negotiating team to represent the continent in potential US-brokered Russia-Ukraine peace talks, following months of disagreements over who should lead Europe’s diplomatic efforts and another round of negotiations that left European representatives sidelined.

European Council President Antonio Costa announced the decision following an informal summit in Dublin on Friday.

The delegation will include Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Poland, the E5 group within the so-called “coalition of the willing,” alongside representatives of the European Commission and European Council. NATO is also expected to participate.

“Europe must speak with one clear and united voice,” Costa said, despite the failure of European leaders to agree on a single representative.

Instead, they settled on a multi-country delegation, which he described as a “team effort.” The decision came despite calls from Washington, Kiev, and Moscow for Europe to appoint a single envoy.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had also criticized what she called the “disarray” of competing European diplomatic voices.

The European Union has yet to announce the names of its negotiators. Reuters reported that the E5 countries are expected to send national security advisers rather than their leaders, while the representatives of EU institutions remain undecided.

The agreement also leaves EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas without the leading role she had sought. Kallas insisted on Friday that representing Europe was part of her mandate, but Costa referred to EU treaties that assign external representation to the bloc’s leaders.

The decision follows this week’s negotiations in Abu Dhabi, where European representatives held separate discussions but were excluded from the main Russia-Ukraine-US talks.

Following 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 of negotiations.

Kushner said the expanded format would allow discussions to address broader European security arrangements alongside territorial disputes between Russia and Ukraine.