Ruffled feathers among the allies, as EU heavyweights meet in Paris
After last week’s shock move by the US to sideline Europe from the Ukraine peace negotiations, seven EU leaders met for an emergency summit in Paris on Monday to consider the consequences of the rift and align their positions on key issues. The meeting brought few surprises, but left a lot of ruffled feathers amongst those who failed to get an invite.
The mood in Paris was clearly tense as the leaders of France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark gathered at Elysee Palace to discuss the implications of the changing geo-political situation, the loss of a close ally in the US and the need to step up efforts to secure the continent’s defense on their own. As European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, said “this is not just about Ukraine – it is also about us”.
Although there was no joint statement after the meeting, the comments made by individual participants underscored general agreement on the need to rack up defense spending and a cautious attitude on the part of several states, among them Germany and Poland, on the possibility of sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine without clear security guarantees.
While commentators interpreted the emergency consultations of Europe’s “big league” players as an attempt to avoid bickering and secure unity on key issues at a difficult time, President Macron’s decision to invite only a handful of selected members to the table did not go down well with those left out of the talks.
In Czechia, which has been a staunch ally of Ukraine since the full-scale invasion by Russia almost 3 years ago, providing both military and humanitarian aid and taking in close to half a million refugees, the government was clearly smarting from having been overlooked.
Dogged by the media to comment, Prime Minister Petr Fiala issued a statement saying that he did not think that, under the circumstances, “one dinner” would add weight to Europe’s standing on the global scene. The Czech head of government stressed that the way forward now for Europe was through actions rather than words, such as increasing defense spending, revising the Green Deal, taking action against illegal migration and cutting excessive hurdles to trade.
Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský confirmed that, like all other EU member states, the Czech Republic had received a questionnaire from the US administration regarding what it could offer in terms of security guarantees, weapons or a peacekeeping role in Ukraine once a peace agreement was in place. He said it was premature to disclose what the country could offer, since it was not clear what the peace deal –if it was concluded -would entail. However, he warned against the danger of appeasement, saying that no deal should be made without Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Czech politicians responded with caution to questions regarding a possible deployment of Czech troops as peacekeepers in Ukraine, saying that such a debate was premature until there is a clear agreement with security guarantees on the table and a ceasefire in place.
Although the need for unity in Europe is now stronger than ever, the rupture between Europe and the US has deepened the rifts that had been growing within the alliance as a result of war fatigue, problems with illegal migration and domestic issues.
Czech opposition parties have interpreted Czechia’s absence at the talks in Paris as the government’s foreign policy failure. "The Czech prime minister has not yet grasped that servility will not buy him respect” opposition leader Andrej Babiš wrote on X.
Elsewhere the issue has also served as ammunition on the domestic political battleground.
Slovenia and Romania said they were unhappy that the Paris meeting had not been conceived as a full EU summit. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said the EU did not have a mandate to debate sending its troops to a third country and he saw no point in Europe interfering in the peace talks.
The Orban administration in Hungary, one of President Trump’s main EU supporters, went even further saying that the Paris summit was a meeting of “pro-war, anti-Trump, frustrated European leaders” aimed at “preventing a peace agreement in Ukraine”.
Commentators note that if Trump’s intention was to divide Europe and thereby weaken it, his tactics appear to be working.
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