Friday’s informal EU summit in Dublin was supposed to be dominated by discussions about AI. But reality caught up, with talks with Russia about the war in Ukraine gaining momentum at various levels.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre were not greeted with cheers from their European colleagues when they suddenly called President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on their own initiative.
“Europe must speak with a common, powerful voice,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wrote last week in a letter to European Council President António Costa.
Costa or Kallas?
Costa quickly agreed to put the discussion on Friday's agenda. However, this has led to speculation that he asked Meloni to write the letter. He himself is seen as the most likely candidate because of his role as chair of all EU heads of state and government.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas is also a strong candidate. However, in several parts of southern Europe, Estonia’s Kallas is seen as far too "hawkish" in her view of Russia.
A third high-ranking name is EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has been partly involved in many of the recent talks through her chief of staff, Björn Seibert.
Irritation in the East
Seibert has been on the sidelines of the talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi this week, as have NATO chief Mark Rutte's chief of staff Geoffrey van Leeuwen and Costa's main foreign policy adviser, Anna-Maria Boura.
In addition, Germany, France, Italy and the UK have had their own national security advisers involved.
No Eastern Europeans have been involved, which has caused particular irritation in Poland, which has been repeatedly invaded, divided and dominated by the great powers over the past 250 years.
The last thing we want is for Western Europe to deal with Russia over the heads of Eastern Europeans, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski tells TT and other Brussels correspondents at a meeting in Warsaw.
Meloni herself?
A big challenge is finding someone who can really make Russia listen. It could be Giorgia Meloni herself - at least that’s what a Russian former spy interviewed by the news site EU Observer says.
Meloni has charisma. She is decisive and unpredictable. She can be ruthless and Putin can relate to that. Meloni definitely interests him, says the Western-based former intelligence officer “Sergey”.
What do you think?