Cracks emerge over Europe’s fragmented approach to Ukraine peace talks

Good morning. I’m Mared Gwyn, holding the newsletter pen again this Friday. In this edition: Meloni takes Brussels to task over its Ukraine peace strategy, and the European Commission is set to unveil its annual migration check-up. But first, while you were sleeping: US President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of a “big, beautiful” deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, claiming the pact is close to being settled. Trump’s comments came after an unplanned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Washington. "It's going to be very big. It's going to involve more than Ukraine, and I could even say it might involve all of Europe. It's going to be a big, beautiful agreement, and everyone's going to be thrilled,” Trump later told reporters. The talks came following unusual scenes at the White House, where Ukrainian and Russian officials sat alongside each other at a meeting hosted by US First Lady Melania Trump following a rare humanitarian ceasefire in Russian-occupied Oleshky, my colleague Sasha Vakulina writes. Russia’s envoy Dmitriev said Putin had personally given instructions for the humanitarian operation and conveyed his thanks to Melania Trump, without mentioning that it was Russian forces that occupied Oleshky in 2022 and left its residents trapped under Moscow's control. According to the US-based Institute for the Study of War, nearly five years of occupation have left residents facing severe food and medical shortages, with reports of abuses by Russian troops. Those who remain face continued hardship under Moscow's control. What Europe says: But cracks emerged on this side of the Atlantic yesterday over Europe’s representation in the peace talks, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni denouncing what she described as an uncoordinated approach in a critical letter to European Council President António Costa. Meloni’s protest comes just after the EU hosted talks on Ukraine’s future with allies including France, Germany, the UK and the US. Italian representatives had been present at an earlier meeting in Oslo hosted by the Norwegian Prime Minister and Finnish President. The Italian premier says that the multiple negotiating formats are undermining Europe’s credibility. Costa has issued a prompt reply, writing that the EU’s involvement in peace negotiations "must be organised in a manner that enables it to convey a clear and unified message, to defend its interests and to support Ukraine”. The issue will now be put on the table when the EU’s 27 leaders gather for informal talks in Dublin next week. Meloni’s backers: Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski echoed Meloni’s grievances on Thursday and called for “legitimate representation” under the Lisbon Treaty, which leaves the EU foreign policy in the hands of either Costa or the EU’s High Representative, Kaja Kallas, my colleague Jorge Liboreiro reports from Warsaw. The UK and Norway, he noted, should also be added to this single voice. “The last thing we want is Western Europe dealing with Russia, over the heads of Eastern Europe,” Sikorski said. “You cannot leave Eastern Europe and Scandinavia out of the conversation. We are about 120 million people. Finland borders Russia, Norway borders Russia, the Baltics border Russia, and Poland borders Russia and Ukraine.” Austria’s Foreign Minister, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, has also aligned with Meloni, saying the EU approach lacks “strategic coordination”. Warsaw dispatch: Our ever-curious reporter Jorge Liboreiro is meanwhile still busy taking the pulse of the Polish government at a frantic time for European affairs. Here’s what else he heard: Constitutional crisis: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says he’s willing to sit down with President Karol Nawrocki to move past “emotions” and resolve the fractious dispute over the Constitutional Court, which exploded over the weekend when Nawrocki barged into the tribunal to denounce the appointment of judges elected by the ruling party. Nawrocki says the judges weren’t sworn in his presence, but the Venice Commission says the president’s presence is ceremonial and shouldn’t be an obstacle. “I think we are closer to the end of the very emotional part of this conflict,” Tusk said. “From my point of view, the legal problem is solved.” His minister of justice, Waldemar Żurek, was more scathing and accused Nawrocki of abusing his veto power and trying to turn Poland into a presidential system by “fait accompli”. Żurek said he was open to mediation from Brussels, but the request hasn’t been made yet. Russian gas: Meanwhile, it’s fair to say the prospect of resuming Russian gas purchases as part of a peace deal has unnerved Poland. Energy Minister Miłosz Motyka said such an “absurd” idea would leave Europe vulnerable to Putin’s blackmail, damage US economic interests and strain transatlantic relations. “I’ll be brutally frank,” Motyka said. “If someone is deluding themselves by thinking they can buy time by buying Russian gas, it’s a very short-sighted and a very expensive game to play.” Budget drama: Ignacy Niemczycki, deputy minister in charge of European affairs, issued a pointed warning against linking the next EU budget and new financing for Ukraine, as the frugal camp wants to do. Niemczycki argued the two issues are fundamentally separate and binding them together could “backfire” and make a final deal “even more difficult” than it is now. A diplomat from the frugals shot back: “There is no money tree in Brussels, so we need to make political choices.” Migration check-up: Today, the European Commission is due to present its Asylum and Migration Report, its annual assessment of the migratory pressure facing the EU, which sorts member states by their migratory situation. The law says the report must land by 15 October each year. It is running a few weeks late for the second year in a row, because it touches several raw nerves, my colleague Luca Bertuzzi writes. First, it judges not only which countries are in crisis, but also how well they apply the rules. Italy is a sore point: Rome has clashed with several capitals, Berlin above all, by refusing to accept returns under the Dublin rules. Second, it is the first report since the Ceuta crisis, so the EU executive must walk a tightrope in assessing how Spain handled it. Madrid came under heavy fire from other EU countries over so-called “pull factors”. Third, the Commission must propose the Solidarity Pool, a system to share the burden of migration between member states through relocations, financial contributions or alternatives such as operational assistance. Each country’s share is based on GDP and population, which makes France and Germany the biggest contributors. But a feeling is growing that the system is not working as it should, especially as countries are asked to show solidarity with others that they consider have not put their house in order. Whether the Commission can defuse these tensions remains to be seen. One option is so-called “responsibility offsets”, which would let a country take over asylum applications from another member state. Finland urges US to show 'political will' to deliver Patriot missiles to Ukraine Finnish Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen has corroborated claims by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the US is withholding crucial Patriots defence missiles for political purposes. In an exclusive interview with my colleague Shona Murray from Helsinki, Häkkänen called on the US to find the “political will” to transfer PAC-3 Patriot interceptors to Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently accused US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth of delaying a tranche of the missiles already paid for by Europe. The PAC-3 Patriot interceptors are the systems most capable of successfully intercepting Russian ballistic missiles which are frequently launched by Russia into Kyiv and surrounding areas. Häkkänen confirmed that European countries have already paid for the systems, and called on the US to fulfil its part of the contract. “Winter is coming and Russia is preparing huge attacks on Ukraine's civil infrastructure, energy infrastructure," he said. "Now is the most critical time to have all the air defence capabilities for Ukraine. But we need the political willingness also from the US side to start the deliveries.” Watch the interview on today’s episode of Europe Today. More from our newsrooms EU Commission holds first talks with Serbia’s Student List EU Enlargement. Commissioner Marta Kos met four Student List representatives in Brussels on Monday, the party’s first high-level EU contact since its landslide win. Talks centred on democracy and domestic affairs, as polling irregularities delay the new government. Luca Bertuzzi has the report. Protesters across Europe to call for freeze on energy-hungry data centres. Over 100 rights groups across 15 European countries will protest the rapid development of energy-hungry data centres, calling for an immediate moratorium on new large-scale projects until clearer rules governing them are put in place. Jonathan Benton has more. Zelenskyy urges Latin American leaders to help repair Ukraine's power grid. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday urged Latin American leaders to send help "as soon as possible" to save his country's power grid from relentless Russian attacks, saying every power plant in Ukraine has been damaged "in one way or another by attacks". Escarlata Sánchez and Evelyn Ann-Marie Dom have the details. We’re also keeping an eye on - European Parliament President Roberta Metsola addresses the Polish Sejm as part of her official visit to Warsaw - The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas is also in Warsaw for the E5 Foreign Affairs Ministerial meeting - European Commissioner for Migration Magnus Brunner delivers a press conference on the annual Migration Management Cycle report - The EU and Montenegro hold a migration conference, where the Western Balkan country is expected to close Chapter 1 of accession negotiations That’s it for today. Luca Bertuzzi, Vincenzo Genovese, Sasha Vakulina, Shona Murray and Jorge Liboreiro contributed to this newsletter.