How to ‘Make Europe Relevant Again’ | European leaders scramble as Trump 2 rules out the ‘inclusion of other Europeans in any Ukraine peace talks’

There is a wind of unity blowing over Europe, as we perhaps have not felt since the COVID period," Jean-Noel Barrot, French foreign minister

Agencies PARIS

After a brutal awakening about the state of the transatlantic alliance over the weekend, key European leaders are meeting in Paris  on Tuesday to figure out what to do next.

They will not be necessarily looking how to “Make Europe Great Again”, as JD Vance claims he would have want them to, but how to “Make Europe Relevant Again” in the looming talks about Ukraine’s future. Hastily convened by French president Emmanuel Macron, the talks will see key regional leaders try to pave a way forward outside the formal structures of the European Union.

Macron is expected to be joined by Germany’s Olaf Scholz, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Poland’s Donald Tusk, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen (representing the Nordic-Baltic Eight), Spain’s Pedro Sanchez, the Netherlands’ Dick Schoof and EU leaders in Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Council president Antonio Costa.

President Macron called leaders from key European Union nations and the United Kingdom to the Elysee Palace for an emergency meeting on how to deal with the US, a once rock-solid partner. The move follows a weeklong diplomatic blitz on Ukraine by the Trump administration that seemed to embrace the Kremlin while it cold-shouldered many of its age-old European allies.

A flurry of speeches by Vice-President JD Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth during their initial visits to Europe last week questioned both Europe's security commitments and its fundamental democratic principles. Macron said their stinging rebukes and threats of non-cooperation in the face of military danger felt like a shock to the system.

The tipping point came when Trump decided to upend years of US policy by holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in hopes of ending the Russia-Ukraine war. Then, Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia on Saturday all but ruled out the inclusion of other Europeans in any Ukraine peace talks. The Paris meeting will discuss what defence capabilities Europe could provide to give Ukraine credible security guarantees, including a plan for Ukraine to be given automatic Nato membership in the event of a clear ceasefire breach by Russia.

Ever since World War II, the United States and western European nations have basically walked in lockstep as they confronted the Soviet Union during the Cold War right up to the increasingly aggressive actions of current-day Russia close to its borders. Even if there had long been US complaints about the reluctance of many European NATO nations to step up their defence efforts, they never boiled up to the political surface as they have over the past days

Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, summed up the meeting, saying, “It’s about showing European unity at such a crucial moment for European security. Second, it’s about what we Europeans should do going forward to guarantee that there’s a just and lasting peace in Ukraine as soon as possible.”