European countries have finally decided who will represent their interests in peace negotiations for the Russia-Ukraine war in the United Arab Emirates.
The representatives of the European countries could not agree on one person to serve as an envoy on behalf of all of them, so they decided to send 5 envoys representing France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Poland, all of whom will act for the interests of the other EU countries that were not present at the peace negotiations.
The opposition of France and Germany meant that Brussels was completely rejected, with Paris and Berlin worried that someone from an EU institution would not represent their interests as well as they could.
It also didn't help the EU's position that Kaja Kalas, a former prime minister of Estonia and a staunchly anti-Russian politician, is its top diplomat who would normally be sent to represent it. According to Politico sources, despite the many differences of opinion in the meeting if there was one thing they agreed on it was that Klass is not suitable for the role of negotiating with Russia.
Kalas is so anti-Russian that she is still unwilling to accept territorial concessions from Ukraine to Russia even though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has agreed to it in principle if he receives enough security guarantees from his Western partners.
The other EU candidate preferred as a representative was European Council President Antonio Costa, but he was passed over because, again, the French and German representatives wanted their own people, not a Portuguese diplomat, to be at the meeting.
: Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Mertz repeatedly call on European countries to unite under the EU flag when it comes to financing Ukraine, to pursue renewable energy, to contain Russia but they themselves cannot do so when it comes to protecting their national interests, a right they conveniently deny to other EU countries when it suits them.
PoliticoEurope.