Costa, Kallas and Montenegro float envoys for EU talks with Russia in Dublin

Montenegro names two candidates

Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro told reporters on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit in Dublin on Thursday, 12 November, that the EU has more than one option for talks with Russia. He named António Costa, president of the European Council, as a candidate inside the EU's institutional framework, and former European Commission president Durão Barroso as a figure outside it. Montenegro said he was not putting forward either name on grounds of nationality. He stressed that the bloc's strategy matters most, and that it should be carried by someone who reflects the collective view.

“We have more than one option.”

Kallas points to a 2024 decision

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas made the opposing case on arrival at the summit, arguing that she and Costa should represent the bloc. She pointed to June 2024, when EU leaders chose the heads of the bloc's institutions and also settled who speaks for the EU on foreign policy. Kallas said the treaties are clear that Costa and the high representative and vice-president represent Europe on security questions. She acknowledged that leaders could reopen the debate, which she called always difficult, or simply respect the 2024 agreements. Asked why Moscow would want to talk to her, she replied that the EU should not worry about what Russians say regarding its representatives, and that each party should be free to choose its own.

Costa says one envoy cannot cover every topic

Costa, speaking at the close of the summit press conference, rejected the idea that the Europeans are divided. He said leaders agree to take part in talks between Ukraine and Russia and are working as a team. He argued that the EU needs several representatives depending on the subject. On questions that concern Ukraine alone, such as territory, he said only Ukraine has the legitimacy to discuss, negotiate and speak.

“No one else has the legitimacy to do so.”

Costa said Ukraine's post-war security guarantees were designed within the Coalition of the Willing, an initiative launched by France and now also led by the United Kingdom and Germany, so that coalition and its representatives should handle them. An EU representative would negotiate with Moscow only on Ukraine's economic future, its prosperity and its European integration, he said. Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin stood beside him at the press conference.

Ceasefire first, Kallas says

Kallas also ruled out discussing Europe's future security architecture with Russia before Moscow agrees a ceasefire with Ukraine and an end to the war. She set out a sequence: first a ceasefire to halt bombardment of civilians, then sitting down to negotiate a peace agreement, and only after that talk about peace or the continent's security architecture. She said that architecture is already laid out in documents, including the 1990 Charter of Paris for a New Europe and the Budapest Memorandum, which set out Ukraine's nuclear disarmament while Russia committed in return to respect its independence. The problem, she said, is that Russia is not respecting those agreements. The president of the European Parliament said she preferred to focus on what will be done rather than on who will do it, and wanted the EU to speak with one united, consistent voice.

What comes next

Leaders of more than 40 European countries gathered in Dublin for the political community summit, which focused on the continent's security and competitiveness. The 27 EU leaders take up the representation question at an informal European Council summit in Dublin on Friday, 13 November. Montenegro's proposal, Kallas's reading of the 2024 decision and Costa's topic-by-topic model offer three different answers, and the leaders can either reopen that 2024 arrangement or keep it.