DUBLIN: European nations are seeking an envoy to represent them in talks on ending the Russia-Ukraine war, concerned that a U.S.-backed process will leave them sidelined and Kyiv vulnerable as Moscow and Washington decide the fate of a conflict that has roiled the continent.
Whether that should be one individual or more and who it might be is being debated as leaders from the 27-nation European Union meet Friday at a summit in Dublin. Senior EU officials and politicians have been suggested, but there is not yet a consensus.
What the job might entail is also unclear and contested. But there is broad agreement by governments from the U.K. to Ukraine on the need for Europe to join the ongoing negotiations involving Moscow, Kyiv and Washington.
Ukraine is eager for backup from its European allies, as it's reluctant to leave the talks solely in the hands of a U.S. administration that has often seemed to lean toward Moscow's views. Russia does not want European countries involved in direct negotiations, complaining they are financing and supplying Ukraine's military effort.
And the Europeans do not trust U.S. President Donald Trump to negotiate on their behalf after a series of tense standoffs over trade, Greenland and conflicts in Iran and Ukraine.
"Without Europeans, there is no support for Ukraine," French President Emmanuel Macron said at the European Political Community meeting in Dublin on Thursday. "There is no more U.S. support."
"At the end of the day, we will be the ones to define and decide for our future security as Europeans," he said.
Europe is broadly aligned but not unified
European leaders fear Russian President Vladimir Putin will press Trump to back a peace settlement that weakens not just Ukraine but broader European security. Putin has demanded NATO troops be pulled back from Russia's borders and that no European forces be deployed in Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham rejected the idea that Europe was being sidelined during peace negotiations, saying "there are European voices in the room."
"All the leaders I've spoken to today are determined to put a bit of a ring of steel around Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as part of all of this to back him up to the hilt, and that's what we will do," he said.
As envoys from Washington, Moscow and Kyiv met in Abu Dhabi, several European countries, including the U.K., France and Germany, attended discussions nearby.
Supporters of a single envoy, like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, argue that their absence has let individual countries or small groups engage in freelance diplomacy.
"There are too many different groupings discussing the issue," she said.
Meloni has criticized a series of seemingly uncoordinated initiatives, including a call to Putin by Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, that she said could undermine European interests.
She has increasingly pushed the idea of a common EU representative for Europe to speak with "a single, authoritative voice" and requested a decision by Friday in Dublin to be formalized in December in coordination with non-EU partners in Europe like Britain and Norway.
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said that "Europe has to have a coherent negotiating place at the table, but it's not just the European Union" and called for "a wider European continent perspective" that includes the U.K., Norway, Canada and others.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov argued that for Europe to join peace talks, it first must name a representative. "The Europeans squabble like spiders in a jar. If someone takes the initiative to establish contact with the Russian side, those people face ostracism."
An old question with no clear answer
The question of who represents Europe is an old one. Europe itself is loosely defined. Is it the 27-nation EU, the 32-nation NATO military alliance made up mostly of European countries, the 29-nation Schengen zone, or the 47-nation European Political Community?
That has frustrated Washington in the past and present.
After this week's U.S.-brokered talks between Ukraine and Russia in the United Arab Emirates, envoy Jared Kushner said that "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."
That echoes the famous quote attributed erroneously to former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger: "Who do I call if I want to call Europe?"
After meeting with Putin in Moscow, Kushner and fellow envoy Steve Witkoff flew to Dublin to brief Zelenskyy. Kushner said in a statement on X that Moscow had agreed to "include our European partners" in the next round of negotiations to "address the broader postwar European security arrangements alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia."
Zelenskyy too said the Europeans would not be on the sidelines. "We are involving European representatives even more actively in diplomacy so that they can have an equal seat at the negotiating table. Ukraine always defends the interests of all of Europe," he said on X.
Potential candidates from within the EU
France, Germany and the U.K., the region's top three economies collectively known as the European trio or E3, have so far been the most engaged European body in negotiations. But while London is deeply involved with Ukraine, it left the EU in 2020.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Thursday that the E3 is "a proven format" for diplomacy.
But an E3 envoy would leave out the other 25 EU nations and rankle smaller nations like those that border Russia and Belarus on the bloc's "eastern flank" which face constant hybrid threats, including influence campaigns and disruptive drones.
Some back a top EU official for the job. Even inside Brussels, however, there are two leading contenders: European Council President Antonio Costa and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
Costa's current role is to represent national leaders. A former prime minister of Portugal, he spent much of the past year visiting capitals across the bloc.
"European security cannot be discussed without a European voice at the table," Costa said in Dublin on Thursday. "That European voice needs to be a team effort between European nations, the European Union and NATO."
But earlier this year, Costa faced down criticism within the EU after his office set up a hush-hush backchannel with Moscow.
Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, could also lay claim to the position of envoy.
She said in Dublin that the E3 represents the "big countries" but then asked "who is representing the European Union?"
"Americans are representing American interests. Europeans are representing European interests," Kallas said, adding that the EU's foundational treaties are "very, very clear" that she and Costa were appointed in 2024 to represent the bloc in "security matters."
Kallas, however, has had a bumpy track record with U.S. diplomats as Washington and Brussels sparred over trade and Ukraine. She's also acknowledged issues between her office, the EU's External Action Service, and the European Commission.
Another name that has been floated is Stubb, the Finnish president. He has warm relations with Trump and met in Oslo with U.S. envoys Witkoff and Kushner in October. A week after that, he called Putin with Støre, the Norwegian prime minister. Stubb spoke with Zelenskyy by phone on Tuesday.
Urgency is needed in Europe, said Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs, pointing to recent cyberattacks, arson and a drone attack in Leipzig, Germany.
"The threats are real," he said. "We're going to see more and more and more because that's the way how they can stop the support of Ukraine. That's what they want to achieve."
