Meloni urges EU to name its Ukraine peace negotiator by December and speak with one voice

A letter to the European Council president

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has written to European Council President Antonio Costa asking the bloc to decide who will represent it in talks to end the war in Ukraine by December. She presented the request as a matter of the EU's credibility and said the issue could no longer be put off.

“I am referring to the need for Europe to speak with one voice on the Ukrainian issue, a need that can no longer be postponed.”

Meloni wrote that a series of interventions in different formats and with different participants was making Europeans unreliable on one of the most complicated issues facing their nations. She asked Costa to place the matter on the agenda of the informal European Council meeting in Dublin, so that the December summit could formalize a decision after consulting the United Kingdom, Norway and other partners.

A month of overlapping formats

The letter lists recent diplomatic moves to illustrate the problem. An informal meeting in Miami between national security advisers from some European states, Ukraine, NATO and the EU was confirmed only afterwards by US sources. Leaders then met in Oslo, and a few days later, during a Nordic Council session in Helsinki, President Alexander Stubb and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre paused the proceedings for a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The call took place on 27 October.

The letter also points to technical-level meetings under way in Brussels and to a European presence of unspecified nature at planned Abu Dhabi talks between Ukrainians and Russians, mediated by the United States. Meloni's list of upcoming events includes a meeting in Berlin on 12 November in the so-called Berlin format, held on the margins of the European Political Community summit. A Coalition of the Willing meeting in Berlin, bringing together 37 states, is set for 19 November.

Who could represent the EU

The Daily Telegraph reported in October that Meloni was on a shortlist of five figures being considered for the role of EU negotiator with Putin's Russia. The other names on that shortlist were Stubb, Støre, Czech President Petr Pavel and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. Meloni said in the letter that she was not seeking a place at the negotiating table for herself or for Italy. She added that Rome would not accept commitments negotiated without a mandate from the European Union.

Next steps

Meloni asked that the question be discussed at the informal European Council in Dublin and that leaders settle who represents the EU and what mandate that person would receive. The decision is to be formalized at the December European Council, after consultations with the United Kingdom, Norway and other partners concerned.

“Otherwise, I fear we risk condemning Europe to irrelevance in the negotiation process.”

The letter closed with Meloni's expressed confidence that Costa would make the issue one of his priorities, and her offer of support.