Irish prime minister Micheál Martin has underscored this Thursday the importance of the European Union exercising "clear and coherent" leadership in the peace talks on Ukraine, beyond the debate over whether it should be articulated through a single figure speaking on behalf of the bloc.
"It doesn’t necessarily have to be a person, but that there should be clear and coherent leadership," he said to the media in Dublin, upon his arrival at the European Political Community summit, which brings together this Thursday nearly half a hundred heads of government and state, including Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski.
On Friday, the heads of state and government of the European Union, already in a restricted format for the 27, will continue in Dublin with an informal summit in which they will analyze what role the EU should play in negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow driven by the United States, after Italian Giorgia Meloni expressed her displeasure at the lack of unity within the bloc.
Martin has avoided "speculating" about the option of appointing a specific figure as a representative, although he acknowledged that there are "obvious candidates," and he stressed that "there is clearly a need to have a coherent voice agreed by the 27 to represent the Union in those talks."