Europe’s security is “at a turning point”, the president of the European Commission has said, as leaders from major European powers prepared to meet in Paris for emergency talks on their role in an eventual ceasefire in Ukraine.
After last week’s shock move by the US to sideline Kyiv and its European backers from peace negotiations, Ursula von der Leyen said the issue was “about Ukraine – but also about us. We need an urgency mindset. We need a surge in defence. And we need both of them now.”
The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, echoed her sentiments, telling reporters before heading to the French capital: “This isn’t just about the frontline in Ukraine. It’s the frontline of Europe and of the UK. It’s about our national security.”
Starmer added: “We need to step up in terms of our collective response in Europe. And by that, I mean capability, by that I mean playing our full part when it comes to the defence of the sovereignty of Ukraine if there’s a peace agreement.”
Poland is pretty Eastern European, and the Baltics and Romania could be considered represented by NATO.
Does the article say that only these invited, or only these people are attending?
They are represented in a sense by organisations like NATO and the EU, but that’s also true for France and Poland and they still got invited as individual countries
Aight sick, so why invite anyone? We’re all NATO in the EU, right? Just have Macron, Antonio Costa, Ursula von der Leyen and Mark Rutte in the room.
Poland is officially considered Central Europe, but sure, why play semantics? Let’s call it Eastern Europe. This would be an even better reason to invite all other Eastern Europe reps. Why just invite one, right?
As far as I can surmise from the article, no. No one else was even invited.
Actually, I will agree. It does seem wrong to not have Romania involved in particular