• Analysis
EU and five powers form joint team for Ukraine peace talks
European Council President Antonio Costa said on Friday that diplomats from the EU plus the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Poland will form a single team at the next round of Ukraine peace talks, after European leaders worried about being sidelined from US-led negotiations.
A team chosen over a single envoy
Brussels will send diplomats from the bloc and from five countries - the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Poland - to the upcoming round of Ukraine peace talks, European Council President Antonio Costa said on Friday. The five are members of the "Coalition of the Willing" that backs Ukraine, and because the UK left the EU in 2020, the team includes non-EU states alongside the bloc's own.
Costa argued that a single team is the only way Europe can carry weight at the table.
"We need to integrate all of us. And for this it's essential to have a team and to speak with only one voice," Costa said.
- •The UK, France, Germany, Italy and Poland all belong to the Coalition of the Willing backing Ukraine.
- •The UK's 2020 exit from the EU is why the team reaches beyond the bloc's membership.
Poland's place matters beyond geography: it speaks for nations on the EU's eastern flank that face constant hybrid threats from Russia, including influence campaigns and disruptive drones.
Pressure after Abu Dhabi and Dublin
The announcement followed a summit focused on how European leaders could avoid being shut out of US-led negotiations on ending the nearly five-year war. The worry had concrete cause this week: as envoys from Washington, Moscow and Kyiv met in Abu Dhabi, several European countries - among them the UK, France and Germany - attended discussions nearby but not the main talks.
The turn came late Thursday in Dublin, where US envoy Jared Kushner and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met and said Europe would be part of the next round. Zelensky added that Europe would send a negotiating team and that "they will have a voice".
Allies push Europe to hold together
European leaders had spent the week making the case that unity is not optional. At a European Political Community meeting in Dublin on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron said Europe's support for Ukraine now matters because US backing has come to an end.
"At the end of the day, we will be the ones to define and decide for our future security as Europeans," he said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz gave the fear a name, saying European leaders dreaded another "Anchorage moment" - a reference to the Alaska summit held without Ukrainian or European envoys - ahead of Trump traveling to Beijing next week to meet Putin. His message to partners was blunt: "Please, no surprises. Continue to play in team Europe and in the team with Ukraine."
Russia presses for one name
The team format was not the only option on the table. European leaders had tussled over whether Europe should be represented by one person - as Russia has demanded and the US suggested it would prefer - before settling on a joint team. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov had set the tone on Thursday, saying "the Europeans squabble like spiders in a jar" and should name a single representative.
Moscow, for its part, does not want European countries in direct negotiations at all, complaining that they are financing and supplying Ukraine's military effort.
Within Europe, too, the single-envoy idea had backers. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni supported one envoy, saying "There are too many different groupings discussing the issue." Kushner, speaking after the US-brokered talks in the UAE, went further: "We cannot conclude this deal without the Europeans being at the table," adding that Putin was "willing to give it a try" - and that Europe naming one spokesperson would be a bigger achievement than getting the Russians to include them.
Who would carry that role remained unresolved. It was unclear who would represent EU institutions, with Costa and the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas both floated as candidates - though Costa earlier faced criticism within the EU after his office set up a hush-hush back-channel with Moscow. Kallas laid claim to the job on Friday, saying "I'm the one who is representing Europe in the foreign and security policy," and noting the Russians don't want her while asking whether Europe has a say in who represents Russia.
The next round of talks will proceed with the joint EU-plus-five team, while it remains unclear who will speak for EU institutions after Kallas staked her claim on Friday.
