Virtual European summit: the Twenty-Seven will try to coordinate on the pandemic
The President of the European Council Charles Michel announced the participation of the American president in the summit which he will chair Thursday and Friday.
AP - Stephanie Lecocq
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
It is a European Council which should have made it possible to address major issues for European diplomacy: the relationship with Turkey and that with Russia.
Except that because of the pandemic, the Twenty-Seven will not be able to meet physically but by videoconference, and will focus on the issue of the moment: the fight against the virus.
The Twenty-Seven will also receive a distinguished guest in the evening: US President Joe Biden.
Publicity
Read more
An American president among Europeans is the third time.
Barack Obama in April 2009 and George Bush in June 2001. Once per president in the last twenty years, Donald Trump excepted.
The exchange should not exceed half an hour, but it is a new symbol and a new pledge given by the new American administration to the Twenty-Seven.
Balm in the hearts of Europeans struggling in the midst of a pandemic.
They will also discuss this Thursday a new
mechanism for controlling
the export of vaccines.
It would be a question of tightening the shipments of vaccines to countries that do not play the game of reciprocity and this for a month and a half.
A proposal which in any case arouses the concern of Belgium and the Netherlands: these two countries have many factories and pharmaceutical companies and are worried about the consequences.
Wednesday evening, on Greek television, Emmanuel Macron made a mea culpa in the form of criticism: the European heads of state and government did not anticipate such rapid development of vaccines against the coronavirus, this is the reason, a he said, of the delay of the EU in its vaccination campaign.
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
European Union
Joe biden
Coronavirus
Vaccines