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Politico (19 June 2026)

​Nette Nöstlinger, Gabriel Gavin, Jacopo Barigazzi and Camille Gijs

Late-night Brussels summit exposes splits between leaders over how and when to negotiate with Russia over Ukraine ― and who should do it.

Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz struck out against the EU for opening up communication with Vladimir Putin, putting the leaders of Europe’s two largest countries on collision course with a large part of the rest of the bloc.

In an unexpectedly discordant late-night summit in Brussels ― the first since 2010 without longtime contrarian ex-Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orbán ― the French president and the German chancellor scorned efforts by European Council President António Costa, who acts on behalf of all 27 governments, to reach out to the Kremlin, according to five EU diplomats and officials briefed on the behind-closed-doors conversation. Significantly, other leaders took Costa’s side.

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