European Union leaders concluded an informal summit in Dublin on Friday with two headline outcomes: a drive to mobilise at least €500 billion for artificial intelligence and a unified European team to take part in Ukraine peace negotiations.
European Council President António Costa announced that the EU institutions and five countries — Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Poland, known collectively as the E5 — would form a single negotiating team representing Europe in any peace process. "Today the Leaders agreed that the European Team for negotiations on peace in Ukraine is the EU institutions and the E5 of the Coalition of the Willing," Costa said. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the agreement, saying unified European participation would help protect EU interests and support Ukraine.
The announcement followed the ninth European Political Community summit in Dublin on Thursday and came amid intensifying diplomacy, with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Dublin after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, and European representatives attending Russia-Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi earlier in the week. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Europe and the United States agreed that there would be "no discussions about Ukraine without Ukraine, and no discussions about Europe without Europe."
On AI, von der Leyen said Europe was advancing plans to build seven AI gigafactories, with around €30 billion expected to be mobilised for the computing infrastructure needed to develop advanced models. The tender for the gigafactories closed on November 12, with up to €10 billion in EU and national funding expected to unlock at least €20 billion of private investment, and construction targeted at 2027. She estimated that Europe would need at least €500 billion in total investment to realise its ambition of technological sovereignty, including funding for chip manufacturing, computing capacity and advanced models, and said she would put forward an ambitious financing proposal at the next meeting of leaders.
Von der Leyen said 37 per cent of EU businesses used AI in 2025, according to the European Investment Bank's survey, and noted that 19 smaller AI factories were already operating across the bloc. Costa said leaders needed to accelerate AI adoption, reduce critical dependencies on non-European suppliers and unlock greater public and private capital. French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he and Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten would co-host a gathering of European technology leaders, branded "Tech Creators", in Paris on December 2.
Costa said EU leaders would address Ukraine's financing requirements for 2026 and beyond at the European Council meeting on November 26-27, and that the Council would return to AI at its next informal summit in Alden Biesen on February 5, 2027. The Dublin meeting, hosted by Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin, was the first dedicated EU leaders' discussion on AI strategy, covering technological development, economic competitiveness and the societal risks of rapidly evolving AI systems.
