Italy will host the fourth annual Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC) in Rome on July 10-11. Past recovery conferences have been held in Lugano (2022), London (2023), and Berlin (2024), but none produced meaningful results. Rome 2025 can be different if Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni decides to aim for something bigger.
Past Ukraine Recovery Conferences have convened thousands of experts and produced grand ideas, with zero follow-through. The humanitarian aid and budgetary support that have kept Ukraine afloat have been provided by the EU, its member states, and the United States, Japan, the UK, and the World Bank. A genuine strategy for Ukraine’s own economic renaissance has been woefully absent.
Facing war risk and an uncertain business climate, major private investment has stayed on the sidelines. The Multidonor Coordination Platform — triple-chaired by the US, EU, and Ukraine — has been the most important international effort to date, but it lacks political-level leadership, determination, and force.
The group tends to focus on donor-provided assistance, rather than creating a business climate in which private investment can blossom. A pipeline of bankable reconstruction projects has been slow to materialize. War risk is still seen as an insurmountable obstacle affecting the entire country. Most of all, there is no plan for addressing these deficiencies, and no one is in charge.
This must change. There needs to be focused political leadership behind Ukraine’s economic recovery. This is especially true in a year when the prospects for a tense but sustainable ceasefire in Ukraine are better than at any time since Russia’s full-scale invasion. If there is a sustainable ceasefire, Ukraine can be expected to experience double-digit economic growth. And yet, a high-level focus on economic development is still lacking.
Militarily, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have taken the lead in organizing security guarantees and have planned for a “reassurance” force for Ukraine. German Chancellor Merz is supportive, and Poland is an essential supporter and enabler of such efforts. At the recent NATO Summit in The Hague, alliance members pledged to spend 5% of GDP on defense, some of which will go toward supporting Ukraine.
While others lead on security, however, Meloni can play a pivotal role on the economy. As she has previously said, “When the window opens, we must be ready to move — not scramble to organize.”
How to achieve this?
By using the upcoming Rome meeting to establish a new executive agency — a Ukraine Economic Recovery Executive, or UERE — under the auspices of the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
Establishing such a body could be the number one concrete deliverable from the Rome Ukraine Recovery Conference.
How would it work?
A respected former European prime minister should lead the UERE, supported by a senior advisory board seconded from G7 countries, and supported by a small professional staff. Its mission: to provide political leadership, daily coordination, and focus, and momentum behind Ukraine recovery efforts.
A UERE would not substitute for established mechanisms and instruments, including international financial institutions, the EU, national assistance, development agencies and export credit agencies, the Multi-Donor Coordination Platform, and Ukraine’s own national institutions. Rather, it would engage with all of them to improve coordination and eliminate obstacles in the path of economic development.
Key functions of the UERE should include the following:
- Provide ongoing political-level focus and leadership aimed at accelerating Ukraine’s economic recovery, growth, and EU integration.
- Carry forward the agenda and pursue implementation of recommendations made through the URC on a constant basis;
- Support the successive annual Chairmanships of the URC;
- Serve as direct international counterpart providing advice and support to the Ukrainian government;
- Provide a vehicle for engagement with all international actors who seek to support Ukraine’s economic recovery;
- Provide a vehicle for listening to and acting upon insights and observations of the private sector advisory council (which is already formed under the auspices of the URC).
Creating a Ukraine Economic Recovery Executive may sound like a mundane and bureaucratic exercise. But in reality, it is all about leadership. For over three years, no one has taken charge of supporting Ukraine’s economic recovery. Meloni can finally change that.
In addition to chairing the URC, Prime Minister Meloni has the relationships necessary to pull this together. She has a warm relationship with US President Trump. Her April visit to Kyiv, followed by her engagement with President Zelenskyy and renewed support for a Vatican-hosted peace process, signals her commitment to both diplomacy and reconstruction. By launching the UERE in Rome at this year’s Ukraine Recovery Conference, she can align diplomatic momentum with real economic action.
The Rome URC cannot be just another ceremonial gathering. It needs to mark a turning point. By launching the Ukraine Economic Recovery Executive, Prime Minister Meloni can help turn the prospect of peace in 2025 into the reality of redevelopment, helping to build a free and prosperous Ukraine that will be part of the European Union.
Ambassador Kurt Volker is a former US Ambassador to NATO and a former US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis.
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions expressed on Europe’s Edge are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
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