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March 25, 2021The traditional March summit of EU heads of state and government meets today and tomorrow by videoconference.

For Italy Mario Draghi will participate in the summit of the Twenty-seven, for the second time as Prime Minister.

This evening, at 8.45 pm, a speech by the president of the United States, Joe Biden, is expected, invited to connect remotely by the European leaders.



The discussion will begin at 13 with the traditional preliminary exchange of views with the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli.

This will be followed by a report by Portuguese Prime Minister Costa on the work in the EU Council under Portugal's six-month presidency.

Then the issue of the Covid-19 pandemic will be addressed, in particular the situation of the vaccination campaign and the efforts to accelerate the production, delivery and distribution of doses in the Member States, the strengthening, decided today by the European Commission, of the EU regulation. on the export control of vaccines (a point made particularly by Italy and France).



Green certificates for traveling

In terms of coordinating the restrictive measures against Covid, the leaders will discuss the state of preparation for the entry into force, scheduled for June, of the new interoperable digital "green certificates" between member countries, which will certify, for cross-border travelers within the EU, the vaccination and / or negative results of recent tests for the detection of the virus, or the cure for those who have already contracted the disease.

The pressure is increasing so that the green certificates, proposed by the Commission last week, can be urgently approved by the European Parliament and the EU Council to become operational as early as mid-June, and thus save, at least in part, the tourist season.




Relations with Turkey

The EU leaders will then move on to examine the state of relations with Turkey, after the recent positive progress in the warm eastern Mediterranean area (stop of illegal exploration and drilling activities at sea, resumption of bilateral dialogue with Greece , renewed commitment to resolve the issue of the occupation of Cyprus within the framework of the United Nations) but also taking into account the tightening of the authoritarian regime of President Erdogan inside the country. the de-escalation process the EU front is divided.

The summit should confirm the commitment of the Twenty-seven to resume cooperation, even in a "progressive and proportional" way, but also "reversible" if there were new braking and reversing, provocations and unilateral actions by Turkey.

More marginally, relations with Russia will also be mentioned, but a more in-depth discussion on this issue is expected in June.



Biden also spoke

 This evening US President Joe Biden will join the discussion of the leaders remotely.

The connection is scheduled for 8.45 pm, and in addition to Biden, the President of the European Council Charles Michel and the Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, whose government holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council, will speak.

There will not be much space for any interventions by the other leaders, and it is not known what the American president will want to talk about in the short time available.

He will probably mention the themes of the renewed transatlantic privileged partnership, after the difficult interlude of his predecessor Donald Trump, the fight against climate change, relations with Russia and China, world trade and the reform of the WTO.

Certainly we will talk about the Covid pandemic, and in this context, the fundamental issue is the maintenance of the flow between the US and the EU of components and materials in the vaccine production chain even if not a single American vaccine has so far been exported to Europe. because of the ban imposed by the Administration during the emergency phase.

But the possibility could be mentioned that this situation will change before the beginning of the summer, when the emergency phase is over and the vaccination companion of the population on the other side of the Atlantic has been successfully completed.

The EU will have vaccination rates at that time still far below the target of 70% of the adult population, which will be reached, if all goes well, only three to four months later, and US vaccines now widely available and no longer needed could be sent to European allies, as well as to other countries that will need them most.