EU diplomats to meet Board of Peace director over Gaza's future

Published: 23 Feb. 2026, 17:02

U.S. President Donald Trump is seen during the Board of Peace meeting at the Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington on Feb. 19. Established by Trump and led by the U.S. government, the Board of Peace is a body tasked with overseeing the processes of the Gaza peace plan. [EPA/YONHAP]

The European Union's top diplomats are set to meet with the director of the Board of Peace in Brussels on Monday after a shaky and controversial embrace of U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to secure and rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

Nikolay Mladenov, a former Bulgarian politician and United Nations diplomat chosen by Trump to manage the Board of Peace, will meet Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, and foreign ministers from across the 27-nation bloc. The EU diplomats are also expected to discuss the war in Ukraine and fresh sanctions on Russia.

Just across the Mediterranean Sea from the Middle East, the EU has deep links to Israel and the Palestinians. It now plays a crucial oversight role at the Rafah border crossing and is the top donor to the Palestinian Authority.

The question of whether to work with the Trump-led board has split national capitals from Nicosia to Copenhagen. The EU is supportive of the UN's mandate in Gaza.

EU members Hungary and Bulgaria are full members of the board, as are EU candidate countries Turkey, Kosovo and Albania.

Twelve other EU nations sent observers to the inaugural meeting in Washington on Thursday: Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The EU flag was displayed at the event alongside EU observer and member nations.

European leaders, such as French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, turned down invitations to join, as did Pope Leo XIV. But von der Leyen sent European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica to the meeting as an observer.

Kosovo's President Vjosa Osmani, upper right, gives a thumbs up as she stands while being recognized by U.S. President Donald Trump during the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace at the Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington on Feb. 19. [AFP/YONHAP]

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said sending Suica without consulting the European Council, the group of the bloc's leaders, broke EU regulations.

“The European Commission should never have attended the Board of Peace meeting in Washington,” Barrot wrote in a post on X. “Beyond the legitimate political questions raised by the ‘Board of Peace,’ the Commission must scrupulously respect European law and institutional balance in all circumstances.”

“It is in the remit of the Commission to accept invitations,” von der Leyen spokesperson Paula Pinho said on Friday, adding that while the executive is not joining the board, it is seeking to influence reconstruction and peacekeeping in Gaza beyond being the top donor to the Palestinian Authority.

Trump’s ballooning ambitions for the board extend from governing and rebuilding Gaza as a futuristic metropolis to challenging the UN Security Council’s role in solving conflicts. But they could be tempered by the realities of dealing with Gaza, where there has so far been limited progress in achieving the narrower aims of the cease-fire.

AP