EU leaders continue meetings in Dublin - what has been happening?

Ciara Kelly (0:00)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman. On Newstalk, with Ciara.

Now, European leaders have been meeting in Dublin again today, this time informally, with the likes of Ukraine and global security still on the agenda. And our political correspondent Seán Defoe has been braving the Convention Centre again today, following the proceedings. Good evening to you, Seán. What's been happening today?

Seán Defoe (0:28)

Hey, Ciara. Yeah, look, today, like you say, in the formal meeting, two big issues, Ukraine and AI, the two that were on the agenda. I suppose, I might as well start with Ukraine and the Russia war. And it was sort of interesting because obviously last night we had that meeting with the US. Special Envoys at Bal Donal. And the tone was kind of positive that Vladimir Putin is going to accept European negotiators at the table the next time there are talks. But the take from quite a few of the Eastern European leaders here are quite different, that actually this is a distraction. Kaia Callas, the EU's top diplomat, the High Representative for the Commission, effectively saying now we're all talking about, well, who is going to represent the EU rather than actually the fact that we don't have a peace deal this week because the talks were not that successful, clearly. And that has caused quite a bit of division. Who is going to be that leader? Kaia Callas thinks she should be. She was appointed as literally the High Representative for European leaders in 2024 She's from Estonia. She's right on the border with Russia, knows the history. Others don't want her doing that. They're talking about the E3 is what the Taoiseach mentioned. That would be the UK, France and Germany coming together. But concern about that too, because the leaders of all three of those countries are seen as quite weak. And even if, say, it was a situation where France was appointed to the negotiating team, could you guarantee that if the talks go on quite a long time and end up in a 12 or 18 month talks that we don't have Emmanuel Macron but rather Marine Le Pen around the negotiating table with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin is quite the thought. So that's been taking up a lot of the oxygen from the leaders today.

Ciara Kelly (2:00)

And Seán, who gets to decide? Is it a consensus or how will it be worked out who that kind of special interlocutor might be?

Seán Defoe (2:09)

Yeah, effectively, it will have to be consensus among the leaders. They were discussing that today. The Taoiseach was hoping that they could have some sort of consensus.

When they have an informal council meeting, it means they don't actually make any decisions, but they can have the debate around it. Then when they have their formal council meeting in two weeks time, that's when they might formally take the decision, we're waiting on a final press conference out of here today. But the word is that there hasn't been agreement on that. So it could be the three that I mentioned. It could be someone like Caya Callas. It could be one leader here recommended the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutter, who again would be quite controversial, and others recommending up to five people might be on the board. The Italian president or prime minister, rather, Georgia Maloney, suggesting it should be one strong figure, namely probably herself. So look, no sign of agreement and they will have to eventually do it because those talks could restart next week with still no clear idea of who the European representative would be.

Ciara Kelly (3:02)

Sure. Some people are within Europe advocating a very hard line with Russia. The Latvian Prime Minister Andras Kulberg was one of the leaders.

Let's just have a little listen to what he had to say.

Andris Kulbergs (3:15)

We, as Europe, have to grow some bigger balls because we are bigger in size, we're bigger in, I mean, in military might, in all the economic aspects. Look where is Russia. Russia is not capable of even taking such a bigger, in size, smaller, in population smaller power as Ukraine, which is showing a great, great spirit and fighting back fifth year.

Ciara Kelly (3:43)

Seán, in terms of how that was received?

Seán Defoe (3:47)

That to both the Taoiseach and Ursula von der Leyen shortly, when they do their press conference, he said that sort of late in the stream of it, but did a separate press conference later. And we kind of quizzed him a bit more on that. Like, what does he think? Because he also went on to say he doesn't believe that Vladimir Putin is actually interested in peace. And he thinks that the talks or the semblance that there's been concessions in the Russians is actually just a ruse to get Russia through the winter so that they can rearm and go after Ukraine again. And his solution is to actually get over all of the squabbling around the EU table about funding Ukraine for next year and make sure that they have absolutely enough money because they are effectively the shield for the rest of the EU. So we will see if other leaders agree. Certainly those in the Eastern Bloc are a much harder line than maybe some of the other leaders.