At Dublin summit, EU leaders still split over who should speak for Europe on Ukraine

European Union leaders gathered in Dublin on Friday for a summit that was called for the bloc's first dedicated discussion on artificial intelligence, but the question of who should represent Europe in talks on Ukraine's future moved to the centre of the agenda.

Formal talks began at 9:45 a.m., followed by lunch around 1 p.m. and a press conference provisionally scheduled for 4:15 p.m.

On artificial intelligence, European Council President António Costa framed the discussion around sovereignty, asking leaders how Europe can become a leading and sovereign player across the AI value chain, from computing power and cloud infrastructure to chips and models. Finland's Petteri Orpo and Estonia's Kristen Michal argued that Europe can compete at the frontier and must aim beyond merely adopting technology built elsewhere.

Leaders were also due to hear from Arthur Mensch, chief executive of the French AI company Mistral, and AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton. The obstacle, however, is money: leaders discussed how to fund the computing capacity needed to turn European research into products.

On Ukraine, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said on Thursday, after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, that Europeans will be invited to the next round of negotiations. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week that Europe needs to choose a single representative, ideally by the end of this month. On Thursday he met about 50 EU and non-EU leaders in Dublin.

But the bloc has split into at least three camps over the choice. One camp backs European Council President António Costa, whose institutional role makes him the natural candidate. Estonia's Kristen Michal was the first leader to support him publicly, and Italy's Giorgia Meloni and the leaders of Luxembourg and Poland also backed him in remarks on Thursday.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas argues that the treaties already provide an answer: she and Costa should represent the bloc. Some diplomats, however, say her hawkishness on Russia could put off the Kremlin and make her a liability.

France and Germany form the third position. President Emmanuel Macron said Europe must first agree on its proposals and security vision. Chancellor Friedrich Merz backed the E3 format of Germany, France and the U.K. as well-established, saying five representatives — from Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Poland — are working together on the task and that he sees no problem with keeping it that way.

Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee said leaders would still need to tease through the issue a little bit more at Friday's talks. A senior EU official said leaders are unlikely to formally appoint an envoy on Friday, but the discussions could produce a broader understanding about how Europe should be represented.

Leaders were also expected to address Ukraine's funding needs, as Kyiv faces a €70 billion shortfall next year. The funding question is likely to resurface at the November 26-27 summit.

On the sidelines, Macron and Merz were expected to discuss the race to replace European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde. Spain's Pablo Hernández de Cos and former Dutch central banker Klaas Knot are the leading contenders, and a deal is expected at the November 26-27 summit.