Europe Settles Its Ukraine Talks Team: EU Institutions Plus France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Britain, as Von der Leyen Says "We Decide Who Represents Us"
EU leaders, meeting informally in Dublin on November 13, settled on the team that will represent Europe in negotiations to end the war in Ukraine: the EU institutions plus the E5 countries of the Coalition of the Willing - France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom. European Council President António Costa announced the decision at the closing news conference.
Costa said the leaders had agreed that Europe's team for the Ukraine peace negotiations is "the European Union institutions and the E5 of the Coalition of the Willing." He also set out the institutional division of labour: the president of the European Council represents the Union in common foreign and security policy at the level of heads of state and government, and the president of the European Commission represents the Commission - the treaty, he said, is very clear on this.
Speaking alongside him, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: "We decide on who represents us, and that is what we have done today." She added that the best way to get Russia to the table was to keep supporting Ukraine and keep maximum pressure on Russia, that the Commission would soon propose a 22nd package of sanctions, and that before the next European Council it would bring forward a proposal to close Ukraine's financing gap for 2027.
A day earlier, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas had put herself forward in Dublin as Europe's negotiator, saying she could spot the traps Russia sets; but the leaders settled on a team rather than a single envoy, and von der Leyen did not publicly back Kallas. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk disclosed on November 13 that, after returning from Moscow, U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held late-night consultations on November 12 at a military airfield in Dublin with representatives of the United States, Britain, Poland, Germany, France, Italy and the EU institutions, at which the Americans briefed them on the Moscow meeting.
The Kremlin has not yet agreed to European participation in the talks. Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov and spokesman Dmitry Peskov have said the question of EU participation was not discussed with the Americans and that Russia has not consented to Europe joining.
(Source: European Council)
Source: European Council
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：欧盟委员会主席冯德莱恩与欧洲理事会主席科斯塔等出席会议（2025年资料图）。照片 CC BY 4.0（European Union），经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa at a meeting in 2025 (file photo). CC BY 4.0 (European Union), via Wikimedia Commons.
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