{"id":639585,"date":"2025-12-18T04:51:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T04:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/639585\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T04:51:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T04:51:16","slug":"the-biggest-pain-points-for-eu-leaders-at-critical-ukraine-summit-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/639585\/","title":{"rendered":"The biggest pain points for EU leaders at critical Ukraine summit \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI proposed two different options for this upcoming European Council, one based on assets and one based on EU borrowing. And we will have to decide which way we want to take,\u201d she said during a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>The key to such a plan would be carving Hungary and  Slovakia \u2014 which both oppose giving further aid to Ukraine \u2014 out of the joint debt scheme, four EU diplomats told POLITICO. A deal could still be agreed at the Council among the 27 EU countries, but the ultimate arrangement would stipulate that only 25 would be involved in the funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>About that peace deal\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Washington shocked Ukraine and its European allies when it produced a plan to end the war that was replete with major concessions to Russia, including handing over large swathes of Ukrainian territory and capping the size of Kyiv\u2019s military.\u00a0After frenzied talks from Geneva to Berlin,\u00a0Kyiv and its allies successfully lobbied for an alternative plan,\u00a0which\u00a0includes an offer by American officials to provide <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/volodymyr-zelenskyy-steve-witkoff-friedrich-merz-allies-hail-peace-talks-progress-us-offers-security\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a NATO-style security assurance<\/a> to protect Ukraine.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the first time since 2022, a ceasefire is conceivable,\u201d Merz said at a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday. Zelenskyy is expected to attend the summit and to update leaders on the progress of the negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. and Russian officials are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/12\/17\/us-russia-ukraine-war-miami-00695305\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">expected to meet in Miami<\/a> this weekend to continue talks.<\/p>\n<p>According to draft conclusions obtained by POLITICO, the EU will commit to providing \u201crobust and credible security guarantees for Ukraine\u201d\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and, in a thinly veiled rebuke to Washington\u00a0calling the shots, the bloc\u00a0is set to declare that it\u00a0\u201cwill decide on matters of its competence or affecting its security.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI proposed two different options for this upcoming European Council, one based on assets and one based on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[6560,767,15856,1789,2106,1194,13489,60391,1395,2825,365,6561,2000,299,1214,36,1824,3055,2190,2199,660,1113,24479,22708,2597,25482,809,48,332,7339,811,479,1201,657,49,1220,335],"class_list":{"0":"post-639585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-balkans","9":"tag-baltics","10":"tag-bart-de-wever","11":"tag-belgium","12":"tag-brazil","13":"tag-budget","14":"tag-bulgaria","15":"tag-camille-gijs","16":"tag-china","17":"tag-debt","18":"tag-denmark","19":"tag-enlargement","20":"tag-eu","21":"tag-europe","22":"tag-exports","23":"tag-france","24":"tag-germany","25":"tag-global-economy","26":"tag-hungary","27":"tag-italy","28":"tag-kremlin","29":"tag-latvia","30":"tag-malta","31":"tag-mercosur","32":"tag-military","33":"tag-montenegro","34":"tag-negotiations","35":"tag-rights","36":"tag-russia","37":"tag-russia-sanctions","38":"tag-security","39":"tag-tariffs","40":"tag-trade","41":"tag-ukraine","42":"tag-united-states","43":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","44":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115738776929960390","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}