Ohh, that’s interesting.
As Poland’s Donald Tusk was chatting with a group of Polish journalists, one of them decided to shout a question in English to Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who was talking to some Hungarian reporters nearby.
With a bit of encouragement from Tusk, Orbán walked across to the Polish group, where he was challenged with a simple question:
Who [poses] the main threat for Europe?
(Tusk quickly realised what’s going on, warning him: “It’s a provocation.”)
But Orbán kept his cool and replied:
– The real danger? Economic stagnation and losing competitiveness.
– Not Russia?
– We are stronger than Russia. Make some comparisons and base your opinion on the facts. We have more than 400 million people, Russia is 130 something. Look at the European GDP is [big] like that. Russia is [small] like that. We spend all together, the 27, more on military spending than the Russians. So why we are afraid? We are stronger than they are.
The question is whether we have, whether we have leadership to come together and to defend our interests together. That’s what we should do anyway.
Irish prime minister Micheál Martin focused on the security situation facing Europe in his comments, as he talked about “a pattern” of Russian behaviour in eastern Europe and warned about a “degree of naivety back in Ireland in respect of that.”
He said:
“We had a very serious discussion in terms of the threat that Russia is now posing to the European Union and to European Union member states, and particularly in terms of the violation of the airspace of quite a number of European member states. …
A clear pattern is emerging, if you take everything that has happened over the last number of weeks and months, in terms of drone incursions, in terms of maritime activity around cables, and that in terms of the undermining of political and politics in various member states …
And it seems to me that there’s a degree of naivety back in Ireland in respect of that. Certainly the member states and the eastern European side, the Baltic States in particular, feel this threat and feel it’s existential.”
He later added:
“Putin is showing no signs that he wants to end that war, despite all the entreaties and despite the Alaska meeting and so on. So the situation is very serious for Europe and the Russian threat is very serious.”
Separately, Martin also spoke about the Gaza flotilla intercepted by Israel, stressing that he was receiving up-to-date briefings on the situation, and that Ireland would offer consular help to all affected.
He stressed:
“It’s a humanitarian mission, no threat to anybody other than to highlight and also to bring humanitarian aid into the people of Gaza, and it underlines the absolute imperative of getting humanitarian aid into Gaza as quickly as possible under the auspices of the United Nations and the Red Crescent.”
UK prime minister Keir Starmer said in his doorstep comments that illegal migration and Ukraine will dominate today’s talks.
“We’re certainly discussing illegal migration and looking at what further options we can take together. Obviously, I’ve always argued that working with other countries is always a stronger response.
So we’re looking at a number of options there. There’s a big appetite for it, a number of countries wanting to work with us and what more we can do. So we’ll be looking at that.
There is also, then, obviously, the question of Ukraine, and how we put in more support for Ukraine, put pressure on Putin. So it’d really be migration and Ukraine, the two dominant issues in the discussions today.”
Given the security situation in Europe, Nato secretary general Mark Rutte is also joining the leaders for talks today.
On his arrival, he says it’s “important to come together” to discuss “everything going on now when it comes to our collective security, how to keep our sky safe, how to make sure that Ukraine stays in the fight as strong as possible now, but also to be in the best possible position when, hopefully one day, peace talks will start.”
He adds that the EPC format allows leaders to “have this format to come together, to chart a course, but also to [hold] dialogue in bigger and smaller format.”
After the EU summit in Copenhagen… comes another European summit in the Danish capital. More than 45 leaders from across the continent are expected to meet as the European Political Community to discuss security, migration and the economy.
The EPC was proposed by French president Emmanuel Macron, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It brings together almost every European country, barring Russia and Belarus, with the aim of promoting cooperation between EU and non-EU countries, especially on security and defence. Since its first gathering in October 2022, it has been hard to pin down results.
The one-day summits, with invites extended to 45+ leaders from Iceland to Azerbaijan, Finland to Portugal, are not intended to take decisions. Some diplomats have questioned the value of the frequency of the twice-yearly gatherings; others say the usefulness lies in the informal bilaterals and ad-hoc meetings on the side.
The first meeting was in Prague in October 2022, where EU leaders thought they had made progress in resolving the long-running conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. But it fell apart the following year when Azerbaijan’s leader Ilham Aliyev skipped a follow-up EPC in Granada, missing further talks with his Armenian counterpart, Nikol Pashinyan.
The first EPC summit in the Czech capital was notable because Liz Truss, the UK’s shortest-lived prime minister, decided that Macron was “a friend” after all.
The next EPC in Moldova in 2023 was seen as highly symbolic, soon after the former Soviet republic of 2.4m made a decisive bid to integrate with the west, while facing intense Russian pressure.
A gathering in the UK in 2024 was a moment for the then newly minted prime minister Keir Starmer to proclaim that Britain wanted to reset ties with Europe, after the muddle and turmoil of the Brexit years. Some EU insiders questioned the value of the meeting, which came soon after a Nato summit brought together most of the same cast.
Luuk Van Middelaar, a former adviser to a European Council president, thinks the EPC is proving its value. He makes the case for the organisation in a paper co-authored with Antoine Michon, a diplomat and visiting scholar at the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics.
They write:
“As demonstrated by the sustained high attendance at each summit, the EPC has become an essential piece of the political and diplomatic conversation in a war-facing continent, a fitting and timely response to the demise of Europe’s post-cold war order.
In and through the European Political Community, Europe has unearthed an older incarnation of itself, taking on the ancient diplomatic mantle of a polity of sovereign states.”
After last night’s talks at the informal summit of the European Council, it’s now time for a bit more of political speed dating, with more European leaders as Copenhagen hosts the seventh summit of the European Political Community.
The format is not without its controversy, as some question its usefulness, but it offers a rare chance to discuss some of the most burning issues facing Europe with a broader group of European countries outside the EU – virtually everyone, except Russia and Belarus.
The leaders are gathering now, and will formally start their meetings in around an hour.
I will monitor their comments and bring you all the latest here.
It’s Thursday, 2 October 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.