Production: By Europod, in co-production with Sphera Network.
EUobserver is proud to have an editorial partnership with Europod to co-publish the podcast series “Briefed” hosted by Léa Marchal. The podcast is available on all major platforms.
Find the full transcript below:
Talks on peace in Ukraine are set to continue this week in Abu Dhabi. And this time, the EU appears to have found a way into the room. But what can actually be expected from these negotiations?
After a period of doubts, the EU will finally be present in Abu Dhabi. According to the commission’s spokesperson, Paula Pinho, EU representatives will actually take part in meetings. That’s a change. In February, when talks were held in Geneva, the Europeans were left waiting in the corridor.
And they were under pressure. Last week, Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni complained about scattered initiatives from the Nordic countries or from the E3 group, which created a cacophony. She called for clarity on the EU’s place, as an entity, in these talks.
So who will represent the EU exactly? On the EU side, it will be the chief of staff of the commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Björn Seibert, and the foreign policy adviser to European Council president António Costa, Ana Maria Boura. Both are quite used to taking part in leaders-level discussions, and both know the issues well.
Read more
Russia goes quiet on claims of territorial wins, starts bragging about air-strikes on Ukrainian cities instead (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,719)
And at the national level, the three countries of the E3 group had already carved out a place for themselves: France, the United Kingdom and Germany will also be represented.
Behind this push, there is a bigger concern: Europeans want a say not only on peace in Ukraine, but on the future of Europe more broadly. And they now feel a sense or emergency: last week, US President Donald Trump spoke of a potential “big beautiful deal” with Russia, to use his words. A deal that wouldn’t only concern Ukraine, but Europe too.
His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was even more specific and talked about a security architecture for Europe. That did not go down well. Europeans reacted straight away, saying they don’t need others deciding on their security, and certainly not behind their backs.
So what does “security architecture” mean? It’s very broad. It’s about finding arrangements to protect Europe that Vladimir Putin can live with. Last week, we were talking about the security guarantees Europeans want to offer Ukraine, including the possibility of French or British soldiers on Ukrainian soil. You can easily imagine that Russia doesn’t want that.
Remember: before invading Ukraine in 2022, Putin demanded that Nato withdraw all troops stationed in countries that joined the alliance after 1997.
That means all of Eastern Europe, plus Sweden and Finland. In other words, the countries geographically closest to Russia.
Read more
Fake bomb warnings are hitting European aviation – but the bigger threat came from Jared Kushner
So the presence of Nato or European troops in Ukraine surely will be a point of discussion.
For their part, Europeans say the only problem with Europe’s current security architecture is that Russia doesn’t respect its existing obligations. In other words: it’s not for us to prove our good faith and pull back any troops.
So what would it take for the Abu Dhabi talks to move towards an agreement, compared with previous rounds? One side will inevitably have to give way on certain issues: either on the occupied Ukrainian territories, or on Nato.
That’s what Trump hinted at in an interview yesterday. He said he was confident a deal was within reach, and that it would probably mean Ukraine ending up, in his words, in a different form from what it is today.
It’s not the first time he has floated this idea of Ukraine leaving Donbas and Crimea to Russia.
AI Brief
Your highlights
Production: By Europod, in co-production with Sphera Network.
EUobserver is proud to have an editorial partnership with Europod to co-publish the podcast series “Briefed” hosted by Léa Marchal. The podcast is available on all major platforms.
Find the full transcript below:
Talks on peace in Ukraine are set to continue this week in Abu Dhabi. And this time, the EU appears to have found a way into the room. But what can actually be expected from these negotiations?
After a period of doubts, the EU will finally be present in Abu Dhabi. According to the commission’s spokesperson, Paula Pinho, EU representatives will actually take part in meetings. That’s a change. In February, when talks were held in Geneva, the Europeans were left waiting in the corridor.
And they were under pressure. Last week, Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni complained about scattered initiatives from the Nordic countries or from the E3 group, which created a cacophony. She called for clarity on the EU’s place, as an entity, in these talks.
So who will represent the EU exactly? On the EU side, it will be the chief of staff of the commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Björn Seibert, and the foreign policy adviser to European Council president António Costa, Ana Maria Boura. Both are quite used to taking part in leaders-level discussions, and both know the issues well.
And at the national level, the three countries of the E3 group had already carved out a place for themselves: France, the United Kingdom and Germany will also be represented.
Behind this push, there is a bigger concern: Europeans want a say not only on peace in Ukraine, but on the future of Europe more broadly. And they now feel a sense or emergency: last week, US President Donald Trump spoke of a potential “big beautiful deal” with Russia, to use his words. A deal that wouldn’t only concern Ukraine, but Europe too.
His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was even more specific and talked about a security architecture for Europe. That did not go down well. Europeans reacted straight away, saying they don’t need others deciding on their security, and certainly not behind their backs.
So what does “security architecture” mean? It’s very broad. It’s about finding arrangements to protect Europe that Vladimir Putin can live with. Last week, we were talking about the security guarantees Europeans want to offer Ukraine, including the possibility of French or British soldiers on Ukrainian soil. You can easily imagine that Russia doesn’t want that.
Remember: before invading Ukraine in 2022, Putin demanded that Nato withdraw all troops stationed in countries that joined the alliance after 1997. That means all of Eastern Europe, plus Sweden and Finland. In other words, the countries geographically closest to Russia.
So the presence of Nato or European troops in Ukraine surely will be a point of discussion.
For their part, Europeans say the only problem with Europe’s current security architecture is that Russia doesn’t respect its existing obligations. In other words: it’s not for us to prove our good faith and pull back any troops.
So what would it take for the Abu Dhabi talks to move towards an agreement, compared with previous rounds? One side will inevitably have to give way on certain issues: either on the occupied Ukrainian territories, or on Nato.
That’s what Trump hinted at in an interview yesterday. He said he was confident a deal was within reach, and that it would probably mean Ukraine ending up, in his words, in a different form from what it is today.
It’s not the first time he has floated this idea of Ukraine leaving Donbas and Crimea to Russia.