Europe will be represented by a team of leaders from EU and five major powers in Russia-Ukraine peace talks

National security advisers from the European Union and five major powers — Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Poland — will represent Europe in upcoming Russia-Ukraine talks, according to a senior European official. European countries have decided who will represent them in future technical-level talks on the Russia-Ukraine war.

(Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence)European leaders made the decision after summits on Thursday and Friday in Dublin, where support for Ukraine dominated the agenda. Ahead of the summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged European leaders to appoint envoys for renewed US-lead peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

He said Russia had become more open to having Europe at the table nearly five years into Moscow’s all-out war on Ukraine. But Europe has long struggled to decide who should speak for the continent in any peace negotiations.

The advisers will participate in any future technical-level conversations, the official said, speaking anonymously to describe the decision. Europe has still yet to appoint any leaders to represent it in talks. A spokesperson for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said leaders would address the issue in an upcoming press conference.

As European leaders gathered in central Dublin for back-to-back summits this week, the real action took place at a military airfield on the western edge of the Irish capital. President Donald Trump’s two main envoys made a pit stop at Casement Aerodrome late Thursday to brief Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on their latest round of talks in Abu Dhabi and Moscow to end Russia’s war.

European Union leaders — who at first bickered over who would greet the Americans — dispatched a gaggle of senior security officials, who were also briefed by the delegates. They were absent from the main talks. The spectacle of the EU scrambling for a seat at the table while the US and Russia revive sputtering efforts to end the war — the next step is Trump’s expected meeting in China next week with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping — lays bare the bloc’s struggle to coalesce around a policy that affects its own security.

“It’s extremely important that we have a united European voice,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told reporters on Friday. “I’m very afraid of a situation where countries think they have an obligation to talk to Russia.

That multitude of voices could absolutely profit Russia.” The multitude was on display in Dublin. Germany, France and the UK — known as the E3 — variously sought to hold the reins over who talks for Europe. The so-called Berlin Group, which adds a flank of other governments, met separately.

The EU institutions, the European Commission and European Council, claimed the mantle for themselves. In the end, leaders designated the negotiating role to a group of national security advisers from the E3 plus Italy and Poland — the E5 — as well as the institutions.

The team of seven designates will represent Europe in technical talks. “Europe must speak with one clear and united voice,” Council President Antonio Costa, who chairs the meetings, said at the close of the summit. Still, the debate dominated part of the two days of meetings and raised the risk that it could inflict damage on the EU, according to an official familiar with exchanges taking place behind closed doors.

Several leaders sought to shift the discussion to more substantive issues, warning that it’s precisely the kind of division that plays into Putin’s hands. Fears that Europe would be bullied into accepting Russian demands for changes to the continent’s security dynamic were potentially allayed in the new US diplomatic push.

“We cannot conclude this deal without the Europeans being at the table,” Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, told reporters at the airbase Thursday, offering an olive branch to the region.