The European Council will discuss today, at its last meeting of the year, the possibilities for continued support for Ukraine, the EU budget and enlargement, changes to migration rules, defense development, events in the Middle East.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will join the talks. Bulgaria is represented at the meeting by the outgoing Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov.
On the eve of the meeting, the President of the European Council Antonio Costa expressed his expectation that the heads of state and government of the EU countries would be able to adopt a decision on further financial support for Kiev, based on the proposals of the European Commission.
On the need to improve European defense, he noted that efforts must be increased due to the increased hybrid campaigns of Belarus and Russia.
Costa called on the EU to assess how it can protect itself from the consequences and take advantage of the geo-economic environment, in which rules-based economic relations are no longer a given. The geopolitical environment underlines the importance of EU enlargement as the most important investment in peace, security, stability and progress, Costa pointed out in a letter to the participants in the meeting. According to him, some of the candidate countries will be able to meet the accession requirements in the near future.
On Tuesday this week, the EU General Affairs Council failed to gather the necessary unanimity to approve conclusions on enlargement and the Danish Presidency will submit conclusions on its own behalf, Danish Minister for European Affairs Marie Bier specified. The adoption of general conclusions is related to the possibility of the EU starting substantive negotiations on Ukraine's accession, with the approval of the European Council.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk intends to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tomorrow in Warsaw, Polish government spokesman Adam Szlapka announced at a press conference, quoted by Ukrinform.
The official recalled that today and tomorrow there will be a leaders' meeting in Brussels, which will be attended by both Tusk and Zelensky, but "if the European Council meeting does not last too long, of course, the meeting will take place". "As far as I know, President Zelensky has a strong desire to meet with Prime Minister Tusk in Poland on Friday. We will arrange such a meeting," said Szlapka.
The spokesman added that Tusk and Zelensky had talked in Berlin on Monday, including about the Ukrainian leader's upcoming visit to Warsaw.
The fact that Zelensky is due to visit the Polish capital on Friday was also confirmed by the marshals of the Polish Sejm and Senate, Włodzimierz Czaszty and Małgorzata Kidawa-Błonska. According to Czaszty, the Ukrainian president is expected to arrive at the Sejm at around 1:00 p.m. The meeting will be attended by Deputy Marshal of the Sejm Monika Velikhovska, who is also co-chair of the Polish-Ukrainian Parliamentary Assembly, and Pawel Kowal, chairman of the Sejm's Foreign Policy Committee.
Kidawa-Blonska specified that the talks will focus on continuing support for Ukraine.
Earlier, Zelensky announced that he would accept a visit to Poland on Friday.
The Polish presidency confirmed that it had extended such an invitation. They added that Zelensky and his Polish counterpart Karol Nawrocki will discuss security and economic issues, as well as historical issues.
American and Russian representatives are expected to hold talks on a possible agreement to end the war in Ukraine.
The talks are planned for this weekend in Miami, Florida, reports the magazine "Politico".
According to sources of "Politico", the American delegation will include US envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law - Jared Kushner. On the Russian side, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, is expected to join the negotiations.