Brussels has confirmed that EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will attend Pope Francis’ funeral along with hundreds of other world leaders and officials—including U.S. president Donald Trump.
The funeral will provide opportunities for many high-level meetings among world leaders, including a possible EU-U.S. summit involving the 27 heads of government, or a possible bilateral meeting between von der Leyen and Trump—the first since the latter took over the White House in January—which the EU Commission suggested could happen.
During the press conference on Tuesday, April 22nd, where Brussels announced the Commission chief’s attendance, the most burning question for reporters was whether there is already a meeting scheduled between von der Leyen and Trump to discuss the ongoing trade war that has been recently put on ice for 90 days.
“The visit on Saturday is for a different reason. It is for the pope’s funeral, and that is the occasion for which the president will be traveling to Rome. [But] I cannot exclude any other possible meetings,” a Commission spokesman said.
Italian PM Giorgia Meloni will be hosting the international gathering, and previously suggested a full U.S.-EU summit with the leaders of all 27 member states and the EU institutions. However, a summit like this could be difficult to pull off on such short notice, so a bilateral or trilateral meeting, chaired by the Italian prime minister, is more likely to happen.
Meloni’s trip to Washington last week made her the EU’s pre-eminent “Trump whisperer,” and other leaders now expect her to continue mediating between them and the White House to find a solution to the tariff problem as soon as possible.
Nonetheless, there is no guarantee that even Meloni could make Trump and von der Leyen sit down face-to-face. Von der Leyen is especially hesitant to commit to a meeting without knowing first that she would have anything to show afterwards, as she would prefer to meet Trump “once there is an agreement” on the table, the Commission spokesman noted.
The remark referred to the scheduled Friday meeting between Commission Executive VP Valdis Dombrovskis and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, which will set the tone for the Rome discussions the next day, for better or worse.
However, failing to meet Trump despite being at the same event could also signal weakness, regardless of the outcome of the Friday talks. Von der Leyen is, therefore, in a tough spot, as not attending is hardly an option. This is especially true after she already changed her mind last time to skip the Notre Dame reopening ceremony in Paris at the very last minute, leaving Trump to steal the show and mingle with other European leaders alone.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will also attend the funeral, and plans to have a meeting with Trump to discuss the latest developments in the peace process. Reports say Washington has offered to recognize Crimea as part of Russia if Putin agrees to stop trying to take more territory and commits to an indefinite ceasefire. Naturally, Crimea is a red line for Zelensky, but he is also open to direct negotiations with Russian president Vladimir Putin for the first time in three years.
Putin has no plans to attend the papal funeral—lucky for Meloni, who would be under pressure to arrest the Russian head of state if he sets foot on Italian soil due to being subject to an ICC arrest warrant for war crimes.
