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European Union leaders have returned to Brussels for a one-day summit with a busy agenda, where there will be discussions about boosting anti-Covid doses, energy prices, illegal immigrants and Russia’s military threat on the border with Ukraine.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov will all be in the European Council meeting room for the first time.
The summit in the Belgian capital comes at a fragile moment for the union, which has once again entered deep uncertainty due to the spread of the “Omicron” variant of the coronavirus.
At the same time, inflation in the eurozone reached an all-time high of 4.9 percent in November as a result of the energy crisis.
The debate will focus on Omicron and third doses, the spread of which has accelerated after the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said vaccine protection was declining after the first six months.
The topic of the Summit is Covid green passports. Last month, Portugal shocked Brussels when it rejected the passport and demanded for all people entering the border a negative PCR test.
Italy, recently followed the example of Portugal. EU officials expect leaders to discuss the sensitive topic of compulsory vaccination. Austria, Germany and Greece have taken decisive steps in favor of this measure. However, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, but stressed that the competencies for these decisions are vested in the governments of the states themselves.
Rising energy bills is another concern for Europe. Since mid-summer, the bloc has seen natural gas prices rise at a surprising pace due to international mismatch of supply and demand.
At the last summit, member states agreed to manage the energy crisis through internal solutions. But this national approach has not convinced badly hit countries like Spain and Italy, which insist strong joint action is needed.
The meeting will then return to migration, a topic that has sparked heated discussions in recent years. Leaders will try to help countries of origin financially, to curb the outflow of migrants and crack down on human trafficking.
Finally, the Council will discuss relations with Belarus and Russia, two countries accused of fomenting unnecessary tensions on Europe’s eastern borders.
Tensions with Russia have risen to their highest level since 2014, when Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula. Now, Western countries fear the idea that President Vladimir Putin could carry out a military invasion of Ukraine.
About 100,000 Russian troops have been deployed along the border with Ukraine, according to US intelligence estimates. The G7 told Moscow it would face heavy costs if it continued with the plan.
The European Council will conclude with a euro summit aimed at boosting the economic union of the entire union.
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