Macron reportedly warned European leaders ‘there is a chance that the US will betray Ukraine’ – as it happened

… and on that note, it’s a wrap for today!

• German chancellor Friedrich Merz will travel to Brussels tomorrow for critical talks on the use of Russian frozen assets to fund Ukraine with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Belgian prime minister Bart de Wever (12:40).

• Merz has cancelled his planned visit to Norway to attend the dinner, as he warned that the leaders’s decisions will “decide the future of Europe,” amid the growing threat from “imperialist Russia” (9:44)

• But Belgium’s de Wever remains not convinced, warning that it would be an “illusion” to think that Russia could lose the war decisively enough to ever accept the use of its funds, and raising numerous concerns about legal situation and potential backlash from Moscow (13:43).

Separately,

• French president Emmanuel Macron has reportedly warned European leaders that “there is a chance that the US will betray Ukraine on territory without clarity on security guarantees,” German magazine Der Spiegel reported, quoting a leaked note from a recent call between the European leaders (13:11).

• The call appears to be the second high-level leak in recent days, after Bloomberg published transcripts of two intercepted conversations involving US negotiator, Steve Witkoff (13:24)

Elsewhere,

• The EU’s former foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, has resigned from her post as rector of the College of Europe amid a fraud probe alleging irregularities at the institution (13:49).

And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today.

If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com.

I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Vladimir Putin has stalled progress on a peace plan for Ukraine being brokered by Donald Trump’s US and has said earlier this week that he is “ready for war” with Europe “if it starts one”.

So what does it all mean for Europe?

Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s foreign correspondent Luke Harding who has just returned from Kyiv.

in Rome

Meanwhile in other news, a restrictive sex education bill backed by Georgia Meloni’s far-right government and intended to crack down on “gender ideology and the woke bubble” has provoked fury in Italy.

Italy is one of the few EU countries not to have compulsory sex education in schools despite evidence showing that comprehensive relationship and sex education helps to prevent violence against women and girls.

The bill, which the lower house of parliament has passed, allows the teaching of sex education in middle schools, so for children aged 11-14, but only with written parental consent. The bill, which the senate would have to pass before it became law, is in line with the current procedures in high schools. Sex education is banned in primary schools.

Opposition parties, which had called for sex education to be mandatory, protested outside parliament on Wednesday, arguing that the bill was regressive and undermined efforts to prevent sexual violence and femicide.

Meloni’s ruling coalition, on the other hand, considers sex education as a tool to counter “gender ideology” that it says threatens traditional family values.

The under-secretary for education, Rossano Sasso, said the bill was intended to prevent younger children from being taught theories that cause confusion while requiring parental consent for sex education to be taught to older children.

Russian affairs reporter

The US special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Ukraine’s national security council chief, Rustem Umerov, in Miami on Thursday as Washington steps up its diplomatic push to secure a pathway to peace in Ukraine.

Witkoff, accompanied by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, spent nearly five hours in talks with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Tuesday. Moscow later said the meeting had not brought the sides any closer to a peace agreement.

Trump on Wednesday described the discussions in Moscow as “reasonably good”, though he acknowledged that the path ahead for Ukraine peace talks remained unclear.

I am also keeping an eye on Poland, where the country’s prime minister Donald Tusk has requested that the first agenda point during tomorrow’s sitting of the Polish parliament be held in private so he can make a statement on “state security.”

In a post on X, Tusk said he has made a request to the Sejm speaker to sit in private as he wants to share “urgent information concerning state security.”

He has not shared any further detail on what he wants to share.

Poland has faced growing pressure from Russia in recent months, with a drone attack in September, and repeated sabotage attempts, including a rail sabotage attack last month, which Polish authorities called out as “state terrorism” by Moscow.

Yesterday we reported that the EU’s former chief diplomat Federica Mogherini and two other people had been formally accused of fraud and corruption, the European prosecutor’s office has said.

Well, she has now resigned from her post as rector of the prestigious College of Europe.

“In line with the utmost rigour and fairness with which I always carried out my duties, today I decided to resign,” Mogherini said in a statement.

She added she was sure “the college community across our three campuses will continue on the path to innovation and excellence,” and said it was “an honour” for her to serve in the post.

Her lawyer said the Italian denied any wrongdoing and was cooperating with the investigation.

Thinking again about the emergency dinner between Germany’s Merz, EU’s von der Leyen, and Belgium’s de Wever tomorrow night, it’s worth highlighting the Belgian prime minister’s recent comments on the war, too, as they are revealing just how far apart the leaders are on this.

Speaking at a La Libre event on Monday, he said it was “complete illusion” to believe Russia would lose the war, and complained about “incredible” pressure around the issue.

In an edited transcript of the event, the paper quoted him as saying that “Moscow has let us know that … Belgium and I personally will feel the effect [of seizing Russian assets] for eternity,” adding: “That seems like a pretty long time.”

He also warned about potential Russian confiscation of western assets, including 16 billion of Euroclear’s money in Russia, or Belgian-owned factories in the country.

“And what if Belarus and China also confiscated western assets? Have we considered all of this? No, we haven’t,” he said.

French president Emmanuel Macron has reportedly warned European leaders that “there is a chance that the US will betray Ukraine on territory without clarity on security guarantees,” German magazine Der Spiegel reported, quoting a leaked note from a recent call between the European leaders.

Spiegel said it had obtained an English note summarising the call, featuring what it claims are direct quotes from some of the participants.

The magazine claimed that Macron talked about the tense moment in the talks to be “a big danger” for Zelenskyy, with German chancellor Friedrich Merz adding that the Ukrainian leader – also on the call – needed to be “very careful.”

“They are playing games with both you and us,” Merz was reported as saying, which the magazine concluded was a reference to Steve Witkoff’s mission to Moscow.

The magazine said that other leaders also expressed their concerns, with Finland’s Alexander Stubb reportedly saying “we must not leave Ukraine and Volodymyr alone with these guys.”

Even Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte – who in public is very complimentary of Trump – reportedly said that he agreed with Alexander “that we need to protect Volodymyr.”

There is an obvious health warning here: there is no easy way of verifying this note’s authenticity, and the Guardian has not been able to immediately confirm the report.

But Der Spiegel said that it spoke with “several” participants of the call, who confirmed it took place, and two of them reportedly said the quotes were “accurately reproduced.”

A spokesperson for Zelenskyy declined to comment, as did the Merz’s office, while the Élysée Palace contested the quotes attributed to Macron.

The full German story is here, and Spiegel also separately published an English version here, saying it contained original quotes from the note in English.

But on a more serious note, we are hearing that German chancellor Friedrich Merz has postponed his planned visit to Norway scheduled for Friday and will travel to Brussels instead.

Merz will travel to Belgium for a private dinner with Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, his spokesperson said in comments reported by Reuters.

The meeting obviously comes amid a heated debate about the use of frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine, with Belgium continuing to express its opposition to the proposal for the so-called reparations loan (9:44), so we can safely assume this will be a prominent topic of their conversation.

European culture editor

He’s the middle-manager who talks as if he’s the CEO, a beacon of workplace inclusivity in his own head but a bigoted chauvinist as soon as he opens his mouth. And listening to him creates a mix of familiarity and embarrassment-by-proxy that turns out to be surprisingly pleasurable.

Ricky Gervais’s cringe-making general manager of a soul-destroyingly dull Slough-based paper merchant stopped being a regular presence on British TV over two decades ago, but the many comedic characters that he spawned across the globe have outlived him.

In Germany, where a feature film based on a German sitcom inspired by The Office opens in cinemas on Thursday, some are even starting to suspect that their own David Brent is now leading the country.

The mockumentary sitcom Stromberg launched on German TV in 2004, three years after the start of the British series; its makers denied it was based on the British show until the BBC threatened legal action. It ran for eight years, and the self-aggrandising wisdom of its titular character, Bernd “Let papa sort it” Stromberg, has proven inescapable on social media.

German federal elections at the start of this year gave Stromberg meme culture a new lease of life, and not just because the slender physique and partial baldness of the chancellor, Friedrich Merz, resembles that of the office authoritarian played by the comedian Christoph Maria Herbst.

“They are both boomers to the core and seem to lack any sensitivity to social cues,” said Lukas Lohmer, a German comedy writer for television. “The only difference is that Stromberg realises when he makes a faux pas and often corrects himself.”

In recent weeks, Merz elicited fremdschämen (“vicarious embarrassment”), especially among younger Germans, when proclaiming during a trip to Angola how much he missed German bread, or when he asserted upon returning from Belém, Brazil, that “everyone was delighted to be back in Germany and to have left that place”.

Earlier this week, the issue of historical rememberence caused some tensions between Poland’s Donald Tusk and Germany’s Friedrich Merz as they met in Berlin for the annual Polish-German summit.

During a press conference after the meeting, their differences over the issue of reparation or compensation for the Nazi German crimes during the second world war were laid bare (as covered in detail on Europe Live), with increasingly impatient Tusk urging Berlin to “hurry up” with a decision to support some 50,000 living Polish victims of the war.

Yesterday, the German parliament, Bundestag, passed a resolution calling for the works on the memorial site dedicated to the Polish victims of the war to be accelerated.

The proposal was adopted with overwhelming majority as both government parties and most opposition forces voted in favour, except for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland which either abstained or even voted against in some individual cases.

This could become significant at some point further down the line as the AfD leads – and widens its lead – in the German polls, with a 3pp lead over the ruling CDU/CSU party of Friedrich Merz, according to the latest Ipsos poll.

Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Beijing is a three day balancing act between national and European interests and between engagement with Chinese business and safeguarding its economy.

China has never condemned Russia for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine and it is unlikely this will happen now. But French diplomats have said that Macron would be urging Beijing to “convince and influence Russia to move toward a ceasefire as soon as possible”.

“Now, more than ever, dialogue between China and France is vital,” Macron told his host during their Thursday meeting at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. “I propose a positive threefold agenda for our relations, one of geopolitical stability, of economic rebalancing, and of environmental sustainability.”

On the economic side, France like Germany and the EU as a whole, is in deficit with China, selling less (€30bn) to the country than the €66bn imports. Nuclear reactors and machinery, where both countries are global leaders, is France’s second biggest export category.

But a hoped for deal on Airbus orders is unlikely to materialise during this visit amid escalating tensions with Europe as a whole, which has a centralised policy on trade with negotiations conducted through Brussels. A probe into cognac exports remains resolved.

Macron has recently called for the EU to reduce its dependence on China warning the bloc does not want to be a “vassal” to US and Chinese tech companies.

Yesterday Brussels launched a €3bn fund to reduce dependency on China warning it would force EU industries to do so through legislation, if they did not do so voluntarily.

Nearly half of Europeans see Donald Trump as “an enemy of Europe”, rather more rate the risk of war with Russia as high and more than two-thirds believe their country would not be able to defend itself in the event of such a war, a survey has found.

The nine-country poll for the Paris-based European affairs debate platform Le Grand Continent also found that nearly three-quarters of respondents wanted their country to stay in the EU, with almost as many saying leaving the union had harmed the UK.

Jean-Yves Dormagen, a political science professor and founder of the polling agency Cluster17, said: “Europe is not only facing growing risks, it is also undergoing a transformation of its historical, geopolitical and political environment. The overall picture [of the survey] portrays a Europe that is anxious, that is deeply aware of its vulnerabilities and that is struggling to project itself positively into the future.”

The polling found that an average of 48% of people across the nine countries see Trump as an outright foe – ranging from highs of 62% in Belgium and 57% in France to lows of 37% in Croatia and 19% in Poland.

“Across the continent, Trumpism is clearly considered a hostile force,” Dormagen said, adding that this perception was hardening, with fewer people than in December 2024 describing Trump as “neither friend nor foe” and more as definitely hostile.

However, Europeans still view the relationship with the US as strategically important: when asked what position the EU should adopt towards the US government, the most popular option (48%) was compromise.

The survey in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Croatia, Belgium and the Netherlands also found a relative majority (51%) felt the risk of open war with Russia in the coming years was high, and 18% considered it very high.

I will also keep an eye on the visit of the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, to London, to sign a major defence deal between Norway and the UK “to hunt Russian submarines” and protect critical undersea infrastructure.

Norway’s defence minister Tore O. Sandvik met with the UK’s defence secretary John Healey earlier today to sign the deal, and Støre has just been welcomed by UK’s Keir Starmer outside the iconic black doors to 10 Downing Street.

Here’s the UK press release with all details, and here’s the Norwegian side of the story, which also helpfully explains the fascinating history behind the deal’s name, Lunna House, comemmorating a clandestine operation to transfer men and materials between Shetland and Nazi-occupied Norway during the second world war.

Meanwhile, as we were sleeping, France’s Emmanuel Macron has met with China’s Xi Jinping, urging him to “work together” on ending the war in Ukraine and broader geopolitical and economic issues.

“Now, more than ever, dialogue between China and France is vital,” Macron told his host during their Thursday meeting at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, Reuters reported.

“I propose a positive threefold agenda for our relations, one of geopolitical stability, of economic rebalancing, and of environmental sustainability,” he said.

Reuters noted that the French president seeks to bolster his foreign policy credentials and secure commercial deals for French industry in a bid to revitalise his political legacy in the final years of his term after a tumultuous summer, and ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

China, for its part, wants to ease trade frictions with the 27-strong EU over its heavily subsidised electric vehicle industry, while presenting itself as a reliable trading partner and an alternative market to the US as global economies face recession risks resulting from President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has described this week’s Ukraine peace talks as “necessary,” “useful,” and “difficult work,” stressing that some of the proposals were unacceptable to Moscow.

He also continued his attacks on Europeans, saying they should get involved to help a deal, rather than hinder it. (Erm.)

But US president Donald Trump insisted that Putin would like to agree a deal, describing the talks as “reasonably good.”

What comes next, however, is not clear.

Meanwhile, the European Union is consumed by a debate on the use of frozen Russian assets, with Belgium only doubling down on its opposition to the European Commission’s proposals, which its prime minister Bart de Wever insisted was totally reasonable.

Let’s just say that not everyone agrees, as much as some of them are sympathethic with some of Belgium’s concerns.

In a comment piece for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, German chancellor Friedrich Merz warned fellow leaders that the decisions they are going to make now will “decide the future of Europe,” as he talked about the growing threat from “imperialist Russia.”

The EU leaders are still hoping to make a decision at the summit later this month, which gives them 14 days to come up with some sort of acceptable consensus.

I will bring you all the key updates throughout the day.

It’s Thursday, 4 December 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.

Good morning.