Watch: Behind closed doors—Ukraine, taxes, and trade at this week's European Council Summit

Tonight, Council President António Costa is gathering all twenty-seven national leaders for an exclusive, high-stakes working dinner. Sadly, he forgot to invite your reporter, but that doesn't stop us from seeing what will be served on the multi-course menu. Forget the dry press releases. Let's pull up a chair and look at the dishes driving the debate. First is Ukraine. Leaders will hear from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, before discussing a major diplomatic milestone: opening the first formal block of EU membership negotiations for both Ukraine and Moldova. Next is global economic survival. EU leaders are confronting unfair competition from China, aiming to build a unified European stance against Beijing's state subsidies and to stop losing out on trade before European factories are forced to close. Finally, there will be a bitter row over the next seven-year budget. Costa has delivered a blunt ultimatum: no deal this year without new EU-wide taxes. Brussels wants to raise billions through green duties and fresh levies on big tech, crypto, and online gambling. The Cypriot presidency has pitched a compromise budget of 1.73 trillion euros, but the fiscal frugals, like Germany or Sweden, argue the total sum is still far too high. That is a massive amount of political pressure to digest before dessert, especially as crushing energy bills from the war in Iran still hang over the table. The official summit conclusions on Friday will no doubt look polished and uniform. However, the real, messy fate of the European economy is being carved up across Thursday’s dinner plates. If history is any guide, expect the coffee to be strong, the knives to be out, and the negotiations to stretch long after the tables are cleared. Watch the Euronews video in the player above for the full story.