Politico Learned of the EU’s Plans to Appoint a Negotiator for Relations with Russia

The European Union wants to create the position of special representative for negotiations with Russia on the war in Ukraine, who will represent the interests of the entire community. According to Politico, citing its sources, supporters of the plan, including France and Italy, have already secured the backing of the European Commission and a number of other countries, reports unian.net. They argue that Europe will only be able to maintain its “red lines”, such as Ukraine’s potential future membership of NATO, if the EU has a seat at the negotiating table. “There are some issues that cannot be discussed [only] with the US, as they have direct implications for our security as Europeans,” one official said. “The message to Washington is just as important as [the message] to Moscow”. European leaders first discussed the idea of a special envoy at the EU summit in March last year, a senior EU official confirmed. Despite broad support, no decision was taken. “Countries that supported the appointment of an envoy for Ukraine may not support the same decision for Russia,” one of the officials said.