The EU’s traditional bad boy, Viktor Orbán, helped the rest of the leaders make progress by staying away from the gathering for most of the day and then keeping out of the discussions on Ukraine. He doesn’t believe Europe should be fighting someone else’s war but has lately taken a view that he doesn’t want to go to war with the EU too much either.
After sometimes tense discussions, leaders even managed to agree to the summit conclusions on the bloc’s climate targets, without a fatal breakdown. The final text stopped short of endorsing the 2040 emissions reduction target and left key decisions for a later date.
It was, one diplomat said, a “classic” EU outcome, with “everyone equally unhappy.”
But by 11 p.m. the attention had switched back to Ukraine and the autopsy of the plan that Belgium had strangled.
The long haul
French President Emmanuel Macron said the plan for using the assets to create a loan to Kyiv was not dead. “It hasn’t been buried, we were able to discuss technical details,” he told reporters. “We need to progress with method, because we can’t do anything that breaks international law.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said the plan for using the assets to create a loan to Kyiv was not dead. | Dursun Aydemir/Getty Images
Von der Leyen tried to put a brave face on the outcome and argued that the EU would remain a staunch ally for Kyiv. “We are in for the long haul,” she explained. Ukraine, however, says it needs the money early next year.
Many of the EU’s leaders will meet again on Friday with Zelenskyy and the U.K.’s Keir Starmer as part of the coalition of the willing to support peace efforts. Zelenskyy will be hoping they have more success.
“After our sanctions, and Trump’s sanctions, the reparations loan should have made this a really good day,” one EU diplomat said. “But it’s an opportunity we’ve missed.”
