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‘You could even have a TV show about it’: Europe struggles to choose its representative for Ukraine peace talks

Source: Meduza

The United States, Russia, and Ukraine will expand the format of their trilateral peace talks to include Europe, U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff said yesterday evening, after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Witkoff said European representatives would join the next meeting. “They’re our partners, and it’s important for them to be involved,” he said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov indicated at a briefing today that Moscow does not object to European participation, though his comments stopped short of confirming that Russia has given its final consent. Peskov said “a real decision on dialogue in an expanded format” could come once the Kremlin “understands their real intentions and readiness to contribute to the peace process.”

“If the Europeans have someone who is at least somehow authorized to negotiate, if the Europeans genuinely have the desire, then of course we will be ready to talk with them,” Peskov said. He also said bilateral contacts with the Europeans are not yet under discussion, though Russia is ready for that as well.

Still, it remains unclear who will represent Europe in the talks. The question dominated a summit of EU heads of state taking place in Dublin yesterday and today, even though the gathering had not originally been planned to address the Russia–Ukraine war.

Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal, addressing deep divisions in Europe over the candidacy, said: “You could even have a TV show about it.” As Politico reports, officials and diplomats now fall into three main camps. Here are the options they support:

European Council President António Costa

Most EU countries view Costa as the most acceptable candidate. The title of European Council president alone implies a mandate to represent the bloc’s leaders on the world stage, and his experience as Portugal’s prime minister is believed to “afford him some neutrality,” one Politico source said.

Michal was the first EU leader to publicly back Costa, saying his mandate “comes directly from the [European] Council,” which he said was a good thing because it makes him accountable to EU member states. The leaders of Luxembourg and Poland also voiced support for Costa, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she was fine with the candidacy.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas

Like Costa, Kallas is a natural candidate by virtue of her position. But many consider her unsuitable because of her extremely hard-line anti-Russian stance, fearing the Kremlin would reject her as an interlocutor. One Politico source called her “probably the worst person you could pick” to represent the EU in such important talks.

Supporters of Kallas, by contrast, see her tough stance as an advantage. “It would make much more sense. That’s what Putin would do. He would pick whoever you don’t want to talk to,” a senior European diplomat said on condition of anonymity. At today’s briefing, Peskov declined to comment on how the Kremlin would view Kallas as Europe’s representative.

Someone outside the EU institutions

According to Politico, France and Germany, the EU’s largest countries, are “unlikely” to agree to a scheme giving Brussels a monopoly on representing Europe’s interests.

Germany is Europe’s largest economy. France is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and the only country on the continent with nuclear weapons, giving it diplomatic and military leverage no EU institution has. Both countries want a bigger role in the process at the national level, which would be harder to achieve if an EU representative became the lead negotiator.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz yesterday cited the E3 — a grouping of France, Germany, and the U.K. — as an example of a “well-established format” on Ukraine. “We are also working together on this task with five representatives — from Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Poland. I see absolutely no problem with keeping it that way,” he said.

Consultations on the candidacy will continue in Dublin throughout the day. Politico’s sources said earlier that a representative is unlikely to be officially named as a result, but that the EU could reach an “understanding” on how Europe should be represented in the talks.

When and where the next round of talks between Russia and Ukraine will take place remains unclear. Peskov said today that Moscow “proceeds from the assumption that it will take place fairly soon, in the foreseeable future.”

The war in photos. Blackouts in Kyiv after Russian strikes.