E5 and the EU: Europe selects its negotiating team for peace between Russia and Ukraine

Brussels – Europe at the negotiating table for peace between Russia and Ukraine: a solution is beginning to take shape. Following a day of talks in Dublin, the heads of state and government of the EU member states appear to have reached a tentative agreement on how to fulfil Europe’s role: a negotiating team comprising the group known as the ‘E5’ (France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom) plus the European Union. This scenario was raised at the closing press conference by the Irish Prime Minister, Michael Martin: “It is reasonable,” he said, to send the group of five to the negotiating table, joined by the EU. First, however, “Russia must demonstrate a willingness to end this war.” 

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, shares this view, believing that, for the negotiations, “a strong European presence is important to safeguard the interests of Ukraine and the EU”, and in this regard, “I welcome the European E5 team plus the EU institutions”. Of course, she warns, “the path to peace will not be easy, but we will remain united, just as we have been over the last five years in our support for Ukraine.”

The die is cast and the course set: Europe will sit at the table as a “team”, emphasises the President of the European Council, António Costa, who also wishes to make it clear who, on behalf of the EU, can represent the Union. He does so on strictly legal grounds, stating that “the treaties are clear: the President of the European Council represents the Member States in matters of foreign policy at the level of Heads of State or Government.” He then adds, “there is the President of the Commission, who represents the Commission.” These points effectively sideline the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, who is destined to play the role of a spectator. 

So the EU seems to have found a solution to the problem of “who” should represent Europeans, and now a clear common strategy will have to be established. “The coming weeks will be a decisive test of Russia’s willingness to end this war,” insists Costa. At the end of the month (26 and 27 November), he reveals, the heads of state and government will discuss “Ukraine’s financial needs for 2027” during the EU’s extraordinary summit on the multi-annual budget (MFF 2028–2034).