Europe wants one voice at Ukraine peace talks, but can't pick one

European Union leaders sit down in Dublin on Friday with one job at the top of the agenda: finding a single envoy to speak for Europe in Russia-Ukraine peace talks. There is no name yet, and no consensus on whether it should be one person or several. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the loudest advocate for a lone representative, wants the call made Friday and formalized in December together with non-EU partners such as Britain and Norway.

Ukraine is pushing for European muscle in the room, unwilling to leave its fate to a U.S. administration that has often looked tilted toward Moscow. Russia wants Europeans nowhere near the direct talks, complaining they bankroll and arm Ukraine's military. And Europe doesn't trust U.S. President Donald Trump to negotiate on its behalf after tense standoffs over trade, Greenland and the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine. “Without Europeans, there is no support for Ukraine,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in Dublin on Thursday.

Meloni says the scattershot diplomacy is already costing Europe. She slammed Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre for calling Russian President Vladimir Putin together, arguing such freelance moves could undercut European interests. The Kremlin's answer was a shrug and a jab: spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Europe must name a representative before it can join, adding that “the Europeans squabble like spiders in a jar.”

Part of the headache is that “Europe” is a moving target — the 27-nation EU, the 32-nation NATO alliance, the 29-nation Schengen zone, or the 47-nation European Political Community. That ambiguity has long irritated Washington. After this week's U.S.-brokered talks between Ukraine and Russia in the United Arab Emirates, envoy Jared Kushner said getting Europe to name one spokesperson “would be a bigger achievement than getting the Russians to include them in the negotiation.”

The names in the frame include European Council President Antonio Costa and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, both appointed in 2024 to represent the bloc on security matters. Kallas said the E3 — France, Germany and Britain — speaks for the “big countries,” then asked who speaks for the EU. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the E3 “a proven format,” though an E3 envoy would shut out the other 25 EU members, including the eastern flank states facing constant hybrid threats.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham rejected the idea Europe is being frozen out, saying “there are European voices in the room” and that leaders want a “ring of steel” around Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin called for a wider continental view that pulls in Britain, Norway and Canada. Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs pointed to recent cyberattacks, arson and a drone attack in Leipzig, Germany, to argue for speed: “The threats are real.”