An emergency summit held by European leaders on Monday to discuss the United States' plans to end the war in Ukraine failed to yield any immediate results, with leaders split on the issue of sending peacekeeping troops to monitor a potential ceasefire in Ukraine.
The leaders of seven EU member states (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands and Denmark) and the United Kingdom, as well as the presidents of the European Council, the European Commission and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, gathered in Paris on Monday afternoon.
The meeting was convened at the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron to try to find a common response regarding the continent's security while the United States is attempting to reach an agreement with Russia on Ukraine and the European security architecture without the Europeans.
On Wednesday, amid complaints by leaders who were not present on Monday, Macron hosts a new meeting with with the aim of having spoken with all 27 EU member states by the end of the week, he announced in an interview with several regional dailies, including Le Parisien, La Provence and Sud Ouest.
Still reeling from US Vice President JD Vance's withering attack on the EU at the annual Munich Security Conference last weekend, European leaders have been left stunned by President Donald Trump's administration's moves on Ukraine, Russia and European defense.
Trump sidelined Kyiv and its European backers last week when he called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to talk about starting negotiations to end the three-year war following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
In order to accelerate the negotiation process with Moscow, the US administration has outlined a plan that would exclude Ukraine from NATO, grant Russia territorial concessions, and close the door on US participation in future peacekeeping operations.
The terms are being viewed in Europe's corridors of power as Washington turning its back on allies in favour of making a deal with Putin.
Fears of Europe being sidelined were heightened by a rare meeting on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia between the top diplomats from Russia and the United States. According to a photo released by the Russian Foreign Ministry, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have begun talks in Riyadh on ending the war in Ukraine - with Kyiv noticeably absent.
The Kremlin said Tuesday's talks aim to lay the groundwork for formal Ukraine peace negotiations and a future meeting between Trump and Putin. No date has been set for the presidential summit.
To send troops or not to send troops
The main goal of Monday's meeting of European leaders was to agree on a common strategy for dealing with Trump, who aims to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin to the negotiating table, while tasking Europeans with securing a peace deal.
NATO chief Rutte summed up the meeting by saying that Europe is "ready and willing" to take a step forward in providing security guarantees for Ukraine, as well as investing much more on defence.
At the Munich Security Conference last weekend, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen already announced that the Commission will propose exempting defence from EU limits on government spending.
Some members are already taking individual steps to strengthen defence spending. Bulgaria's Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov said that a procedure to exclude defence and military industry costs from the inflation index will be adopted in Bulgaria. He emphasised that this proposal originated from Bulgaria, which has been advocating for this measure at EU defence ministers' meetings for over a year.
While European leaders in Paris called for increased defense spending, they however remained divided over sending peacekeepers to Ukraine to support the implementation of a possible peace deal.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected the peacekeeper debate as "completely premature". He said he was "irritated" by discussions revolving around possible outcomes of peace talks that have not yet taken place, without involving the Ukrainians.
"To put it bluntly, this is highly inappropriate," the German leader said.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also considered the discussion "premature", emphasising that the war is still ongoing and insisting that the conditions for peace have not yet been met.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk took a similar approach. "We do not plan to send Polish troops to Ukraine, but we will provide logistical and political support to countries that may want to provide such guarantees in the future," he said already before his departure for Paris.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the hypothesis of deploying European soldiers in Ukraine as "the most complex and the least effective" especially without adequate "security guarantees" for Kyiv. According to her, any negotiations would risk failure without adequate security guarantees. She urged to explore other avenues instead and above all involve the United States.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said her government was "open-minded" on the issue of troops but warned that a key question was if the United States was "going to back up on Europe" if troops were sent.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said it was "unwise" not to discuss participation in a possible force in Ukraine after a peace agreement has been reached. It is important "to send the signal now that we are ready to talk", he said after the meeting on Monday evening. Earlier, however, Geert Wilders of the largest ruling party, the Party for Freedom (PVV), had expressed his opposition to sending Dutch soldiers to Ukraine.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer however, aware of the importance of London showing commitment to European security after Brexit, said on Sunday that he was willing to put "our own troops on the ground if necessary" in response to what he called "a once-in-a-generation moment for the collective security of our continent".
France and Sweden are also said to have expressed willingness to deploy troops.
Belgium, although not present at Monday's meeting, has not ruled out contributing troops for a possible mission in Ukraine.
Recalling the deployment of Belgian troops in Kosovo, Defence Minister Theo Francken said in newspaper De Tijd: "The day that there is a peace agreement signed by Russia and thus the country recognises that there will be an international force to ensure that the situation remains secure, I don't think it would be problematic for Belgium to participate in that."
A blow to European unity
Because only a few EU and European leaders received an invitation to President Macron's gathering at the Élysée Palace in Paris, this was widely perceived as an affront to European unity by those not invited.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjarto was blunt in his assessment of Monday's meeting in Paris. According to him, these are pro-war countries that have been pursuing a reckless strategy for the past three years and whose policies have led to the risk of escalation in the war in Ukraine.
On Monday, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico spoke on the phone with European Council President António Costa. The Slovak leader considered the participation of the EU's top representatives in the Paris meeting without any mandate to be an event that "doesn't help trust within the EU".
According to Fico, the EU doesn't have the authority to take decisions on the participation of foreign troops on the territory of another state and such a move is only possible on the basis of a decision by the respective UN bodies or on the basis of bilateral agreements between Ukraine and countries willing to deploy troops on its territory.
Slovenia saw Monday's meeting of several European leaders as a meeting of influential European NATO members which should be followed up by an EU summit to find common ground on how to come to a prompt ceasefire and a lasting and just peace.
According to State Secretary Vojko Volk, who is in charge of international affairs in Prime Minister Robert Golob's office, the PM said that whatever decisions are made there, the EU must send out a message of unity.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the Paris meeting will not add weight to Europe. He stressed that further informal meetings "will lead nowhere and Europe will not be taken more seriously after another dinner".
Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro rather downplayed the fact that he was not invited to Paris, stressing that his government is in constant contact with European and transatlantic partners. He emphasised the importance of cooperation between the 27 leaders: "The more united and coordinated the EU is, the more decisive its action will be."
(The content is based on news by agencies participating in the enr, in this case AFP, AMNA, ANP, ANSA, Belga, BTA, CTK, dpa, EFE, Europa Press, HINA, Lusa, STA, Tanjug, TASR)
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
