Dublin summit spotlights Ukraine peace talks and EU representation debate

All eyes on Dublin. After a week packed with diplomacy, attention has shifted to the Irish capital, which is hosting today’s ninth European Political Community summit. More than 45 leaders are expected to attend.

The conflict in Ukraine and Russia’s hybrid activities across Europe are expected to dominate the discussions. U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are due to arrive in Ireland after a brief visit to Russian President Vladimir Putin, following the Abu Dhabi negotiations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will hold several bilateral meetings with government delegations and take part in plenary sessions. He will also attend the Friends of Ukraine event, co‑chaired by Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin and UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

Irish police are on high alert after hoax bomb threats targeted hundreds of schools yesterday in Ireland, the United Kingdom and Italy. The agenda will also cover competitiveness, energy security and migration, with a joint statement expected from Italy, Denmark and the United Kingdom.

Prisoner‑swap deal. The only concrete outcome of the latest Ukraine peace talks in Abu Dhabi was a large‑scale prisoner exchange, as Washington prepares to present its proposals directly to Putin.

Ukraine and Russia have in principle agreed to what Kushner called the largest humanitarian release of prisoners since the war began, with final numbers to be confirmed today. Zelenskyy previously said negotiators were discussing an exchange of roughly 1 000 prisoners per side, potentially rising to 1 500.

Two days of U.S.–mediated talks in Abu Dhabi failed to produce a breakthrough on a ceasefire or the territorial disputes that are blocking a settlement.

Russia’s chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, continued to question Europe’s security architecture, arguing that “the conflict in Ukraine has shown that the entire security system established in Europe after Yalta and Potsdam is functioning very poorly.”

Negotiating the negotiator. Briefing reporters after yesterday’s talks, Kushner said he will ask Putin for his “blessing” to extend the format to European participants, making the process effectively multilateral.

“If Europe could identify one person to speak on their behalf, that would be a bigger achievement than getting the Russians to include them in the negotiation,” Kushner said at the press conference, prompting restrained smiles from Witkoff and Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov.

Finding an EU representative with a clear mandate now appears unavoidable, amid pressure from European leaders such as Giorgia Meloni and from Zelenskyy himself, who has urged European governments to agree on the matter by the end of November.

EU‑UK latest. Yesterday, EU ambassadors discussed a new version of the EU‑UK joint statement ahead of the much‑anticipated 20 November summit. After repeated leaks to the press, the discussion was held in a restricted format, with only ambassadors present and no devices allowed.

The latest draft conclusions, seen by Euronews, outlines the summit’s direction. It softens the most controversial language, notably dropping the pledge to suspend the deportation of foreign national offenders in favour of “close coordination,” continued bilateral talks on advance notification of removals, and on prisoner transfers.

Explicit language on the UK agreeing to pay into the EU funding programme for the bloc’s low‑income regions in exchange for access to the EU electricity market has also been removed, though a financial contribution remains under negotiation.

On youth mobility, the draft now states that both sides will agree on equal tuition‑fee treatment within six months of the summit, while language on the UK’s participation in Erasmus+ after 2028 has been dropped. The Youth Experience Scheme carries a tentative target date of January 2030. Agreements on agrifood standards (SPS) and the Emissions Trading System (ETS) remain in brackets, with a possible SPS date of 1 March 2028 and no date yet set for ETS.

Bring the children home. The European Parliament is expected to adopt a resolution urging Moscow to immediately and unconditionally return all Ukrainian children forcibly deported to Russia or transferred to occupied territories, insisting that their fate must not be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations to end the war.

Addressing MEPs yesterday, EU foreign‑policy chief Kaja Kallas said more than 20 500 children had been illegally deported. She described the deportations as a state‑orchestrated campaign to erase Ukrainian identity, calling it “a crime against humanity.”

Winter is coming. U.S. Under‑Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby and Ukrainian Defense Minister Evgeniy Khmara will attend Monday’s Foreign Affairs Council on defence, focusing on bolstering Ukrainian resilience ahead of the winter months.

EU plans Doha defence talks to strengthen Gulf ties

EU Ambassador to Qatar, Antonino Maggiore, tells Euronews that Europe intends to deepen defence cooperation with Qatar and the Gulf states, viewing “every crisis as an opportunity” while expanding political and economic ties with the region.

“Security is fundamental in the current geopolitical context and it’s a mutual interest,” said the EU’s new ambassador to Qatar during a wide‑ranging interview in Doha. Maggiore outlined two main goals: linking private defence industries through a new platform and presenting the EU’s common defence‑industry policies to Qatar and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

He added that the EU and Qatar are organising a seminar on defence technology and artificial intelligence in Doha on 3 December, aimed at connecting private‑sector defence firms “to create a platform for our defence industry to work together with the Qatari counterpart and possibly also from the GCC.”

Aadel Haleem has the story.

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