PARIS – As a select group of European leaders meets in Paris on Monday to discuss what Europe can bring to the table in possible negotiations over Ukraine, they are not on the same page when it comes to sending peacekeeping forces just yet.

In an ad hoc response to the American slapdown in Munich over the weekend, French President Emmanuel Macron brought together leaders from Germany, Italy, Denmark, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom, as well as the heads of the EU institutions and NATO in Paris.

The talks came amid ever-growing fears that Europeans will be sidelined from any peace negotiations to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which were announced by US President Donald Trump after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week.

In Paris, European Council President Antonió Costa said this “is the beginning of a process that will continue with the involvement of all the partners committed to peace and security in Europe”. He added that both, “the European Union and its member states will play a central role in this process”.

A day earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio downplayed concerns that Europeans would be sidelined in future Ukraine peace talks, telling CBS News that both Ukraine and Europe would be part of any “real negotiations” at a later stage.

Coalition, but no troops (yet)

With the move to call the talks, Macron has made clear he intends to take the lead in European efforts on Ukraine. A year ago, Macron had first suggested the possibility of sending European troops to Ukraine as part of a future peacekeeping force, a suggestion that was deeply controversial at the time in other European capitals.

Macron spoke by phone with Trump just before the start of the Paris talks on Monday, according to Macron’s office.

Before the latest Paris talks, the UK declared itself ready to dispatch peacekeeping troops to Ukraine.

Any agreement on the idea, however, remains far from reality as the majority of EU member states remain hesitant amid a lack of security guarantees, either from the US or potentially NATO, to safeguard such a mission.

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk, before flying to Paris, excluded his country’s participation in the initiative.

“We do not plan to send Polish soldiers to Ukraine. However, we will also support, in terms of logistics and political support, countries that will want to provide such guarantees in the future,” Tusk told reporters, according to a readout.

Spain, too, has expressed reluctance to participate in any type of peacekeeping force.

“Nobody is currently considering sending troops to Ukraine” for a hypothetical peace mission, Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares told Spanish radio Onda Cero before the Paris talks.

“I don’t see peace on the horizon at the moment,” Albares said, adding that it is “a long way off” because Russia’s President Vladimir Putin did not intend to end the war.

Dissenters left out

But the Paris talks raised questions about what shape future decision-making on Ukraine would take, which until present had been conducted by unanimity of all EU member states, which on some occasions had ended in deadlock and weeks of delay.

Europe’s key objectors to Ukraine aid – Hungary and Slovakia – were not invited and dismissed the Paris summit as an effort to derail Trump’s peace efforts.

“Pro-war, anti-Trump, frustrated European leaders are gathering to prevent a peace agreement in Ukraine,” Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Monday in streamed remarks. He added that “unlike those participating in the Paris summit, they would fully support Trump’s efforts and the US-Russian negotiations.

The Elysée has pushed back against that accusation, citing practical issues to putting a meeting together at such short notice, saying “the conversation […] is vowed to continue in other capitals”.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said he does not understand why the EU’s top officials were attending the Paris talks on the deployment of foreign troops on Ukrainian territory.

Fico said that while he had “no objections“ to talks of countries willing to send troops to Ukraine, he had called the European Council’s Costa beforehand to ask why the latter had accepted an invitation as “this is not an EU matter, and the EU should not be involved”.

“The EU does not have the authority to make decisions on the participation of foreign troops on the territory of another state,” Fico said, adding that EU top officials “without any mandate at the meeting in Paris to be an event that does not help trust within the EU”.

**Natália Silenská and Fernando Heller contributed reporting.