EPC summit in Budapest to discuss Ukraine, migration and global trade may reveal stark divisions within bloc

European leaders are gathering in Budapest for top-level talks that should give an indication of how united the continent can remain in response to Donald Trump’s second term as US president, but could also reveal its divisions.

Hosted by Hungary’s authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, a Trump ally who has enthusiastically hailed the Republican candidate’s re-election, the EU 27’s leaders are being joined on Thursday by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.