Eleven leaders discussed around a table, finding unanimity on a couple of general principles: the need to guarantee a right peace to protect Ukraine, the need to share choices with the United States. But in the end a real understanding has not been. From Paris, moreover, a final document has not arrived. From the “informal” summit that was held on Monday 17 February to the Elysée, wanted with a certain urgency by the French president Emmanuel Macron, above all a signal arrives: the peace negotiations in Ukraine will not have to be only a two -year issue between Trump and Putin (today in Riad, Saudi Arabia, the first meeting on Ukraine between the Russian delegation of Lavrov and the American of Rubio is held). At least in the intentions of the main European countries.
The heads of the governments of France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Great Britain, Denmark, Poland and Holland participated at the summit, with the presence of the EU and NATO leaders.
TODAY IN Paris We ReaffiRmed That Ukraine Deserves Peace Through Strength.
Peace Respectful of Its Independance, Sovereigty, Territorial Integrity, with Strong Security Guarantees.
Europe Carries Its Full Share of the Military Assistance to Ukraine.
At the same time we need … pic.twitter.com/xdankewr4v
– Ursula von der leyen (@vonderleyen) Febration 17, 2025
The Paris summit on Ukraine and the knots to be dissolved
There are still cracks and discrepancies in Europe: yesterday’s summit stiffened them, rather than flattening them. To divide it is above all the possible sending of European troops in Ukraine, to ensure a possible ceasefire. Certainly Europe does not want “an imposed peace that Ukraine must accept”. “For us it is clear that the country must take its way to the European Union – said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz -. He must be able to defend his democracy and sovereignty and be in the condition of maintaining a strong army. All this does not It is negotiable “.
As the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, pointed out, Europe asks for a peace agreement that is “lasting”. Everyone on the continent must “come forward”, he added, for the “collective security”. The fate of Ukraine “does not only put Kiev’s future at stake, but it is” an existential question for the whole of Europe “as a continent, Starmer said to the BBC after the summit. Europe must assume greater responsibilities to protect its safety, but an “American protection network” remains necessary to ensure an agreement since “only a US guarantee can effectively discourage the Russia of Vladimir Putin from attacking Kiev again”, has Then clarified. Just Starmer next week will go to Washington from Trump and would like to play the role of “facilitator” between Europe and the United States.
European peace troops in Ukraine and Meloni’s position
Before the meeting, Starmer said he was in favor of sending peace troops to Ukraine. This hypothesis, however, which was set aside by Scholz and by the Italian premier Giorgia Meloni. Deploying European soldiers in Ukraine would be the “most complex and less effective” option, said the president of the Italian Council in front of the other leaders. Above all without adequate “security guarantees” for Kiev, without which any negotiation would risk, according to the premier, to fail.
Meloni would therefore urge “explore other roads” and above all to involve the United States because, it is its reasoning, “it is in the Euro-Atlantic context that European and American security is based”. Shared position also by the Spanish premier, Pedro Sanchez: it is “premature” to think about the possibility of sending troops of European countries to Ukraine, because there “the war continues”. As Starmer, however, Sweden also thinks, which however did not participate in the Parisian meeting.
Not only that. Meloni would also have shared, on the merits, the criticisms made by the US vice president James David Vance. The current administration certainly “launched a launched” to the old continent, would have pointed out the premier remembering that “similar considerations have already been made by important European personalities”. In summary, the thought of the Italian Prime Minister is: “We must not ask ourselves what Americans can do for us, but what we must do for ourselves”.
The increase in defense expenses
The Polish Tusk admitted that the relationships between Europe and the United States now enter “a new phase” and reported that “all participants” at the meeting agreed. But, he added, they realize “unanimously” that “an increase in defense expenses is absolutely necessary”. Defense investments will have to increase “significantly”, in recent days the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said at the international top security of Munich.
EU support for Ukraine
On a lasting peace and on European support in Kiev, Von der Leyen insisted: “We reiterated that Ukraine deserves peace through a position of strength. A peace respectful of its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, with strong guarantees of security Europe takes on all its part of military assistance to Ukraine, “reiterated on X. In Paris there was also NATO secretary, Mark Rutte. “Europe is ready and willing to come forward. To provide security guarantees to Ukraine. It is ready and willing to invest much more in our safety. The details will have to be decided, but the commitment is clear,” he wrote on X at the end of the summit.
