Morning Brussels. Angela Skujins here guiding you through your Wednesday.
The big topics driving the day: Exploring whether Polish-Ukrainian relations can recover before the upcoming Ukraine Recovery Conference, and a Taliban wash-up, with European Commissioner Magnus Brunner expected to answer serious questions.
Up first: Kyiv-Warsaw bristle. After several days of speculation, Ukraine finally confirmed who from the country’s senior political elite will be present for the Ukraine Recovery Conference on 25–26 June in Gdańsk, Poland.
This is a key event in Europe’s political agenda aimed at drumming up support for the country’s reconstruction process when and if Russia’s full-scale invasion ends.
But the event in its grandiosity has almost been eclipsed by the bitter fighting between the capitals regarding a medal, the renaming of a military unit and a significant amount of history.
As Sasha Vakulina writes in to report, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not be in attendance, with Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko leading the delegation instead. She has signalled a deliberate shift in tone, emphasising business outcomes over political tensions as relations between Warsaw and Kyiv have deteriorated in recent days.
Brussels, however, is not the only city watching to see how the feuding unfolds, Jorge Liboreiro reports.
“There is only one happy observer in this type of situation, and that's the aggressor in Ukraine, so we shouldn't be playing into their hands," said the European Commission's chief spokesperson Paula Pinho
Also happening today: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will host French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Berlin to discuss future security guarantees for Ukraine.
They will also follow-up from the G7 summit last week in France, where the United States voiced renewed determination to reimpose sanctions on Russia.
Merz has positioned Germany as the third co-chair of the Coalition of the Willing, a role that might increase in importance after Starmer’s recently announced departure. European officials are still trying to figure how his likely successor, Andy Burnham, will conduct his foreign policy.
Flown the coop. As my colleagues Vincenzo Genovese and Jorge reported yesterday, EU officials and Taliban representatives met in Brussels to discuss the return of Afghan nationals. The move comes amid fresh attempts to ramp up repatriations of migrants more broadly that do not have the right to stay in Europe.
Details of the meeting, such as the time and venue, were not disclosed, a move sharply criticised by progressive lawmakers and civil society organisations.
Groups such as Amnesty International were particularly up in arms that the EU executive was liaising with an authoritarian regime that regularly violates human rights. According to a United Nations report, around 21.9 million people — approximately 45% of the population — are projected to require humanitarian assistance this year.
Millions live in poverty and do not have access to education, particularly women and girls. “Afghanistan is a graveyard for human rights,” UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said.
The discussion in Brussels focused on the return of irregular Afghan migrants "who have committed serious crimes or pose a security threat", a Commission spokesperson said in a statement.
But as Vincenzo writes, there is no data showing how many irregular Afghans are responsible for serious crimes or pose a security threat across Europe.
Compounding this is the invitation the Commission sent the Taliban, seen by Euronews, that only mentions the return of "Afghan nationals with no right to stay in the EU".
The European Commissioner for Migration, Magnus Brunner, will deliver an afternoon press conference today on strengthening Europol. My Euronews colleagues are poised to put the official under the microscope and ask further questions. | 
