German Chancellor Friedrich Merz made his opposition clear Thursday, calling the participation of the E3 countries in talks on Ukraine “a well-established format.”
“We are also working together on this task with five representatives — from Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Poland. I see absolutely no problem with keeping it that way,” he said.
Paris also has little incentive to hand over its seat at the table. France is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and possesses Europe’s only nuclear arsenal, giving it diplomatic and military leverage that no EU institution can replicate, French MEP Fabrice Leggeri of National Rally told POLITICO, adding he could “hardly imagine” Costa or Kallas speaking for Paris.
“France, Germany, and the U.K.,” the E3 countries, “will always be France, Germany and the U.K.,” Estonia’s Michal argued, adding nothing stopped them from talking bilaterally to Moscow. But on decision-making affecting the whole continent, they needed to get on board with “consensual politics.”
“This is what the European Union is,” he said. “This is the basis of having this kind of consensual politics and keeping everybody together on the same page against Russia.”
EU leaders are unlikely to formally appoint an envoy at Friday’s gathering, but discussions could produce a broader “understanding” about how Europe should be represented, a senior EU official said.