The EU's chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, cancelled the launch of a new high-level defense group, after several Member States considered that the initiative was not appropriate at this time. The presentation of the group was planned, but ended up being cancelled.
The group was supposed to bring together former political and military officials to identify ways to quickly fill EU defense gaps. Kallas had presented the initiative as a way to preserve European influence with Ukraine.
The decision to cancel came after criticism from several Member States, which considered that the proposal was not the right time to move forward. The risk of duplicating work with existing structures was also pointed out.
Kallas tried to preserve European influence with this initiative, but ended up seeing the presentation of the group cancelled, in a case that the Politico newspaper describes as a shot that backfired.
