EU leaders attend summit in person for 1st time this year
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — On the list of things not to do during a pandemic, holding big international gatherings is close to the top.
But European Union leaders and their large following of diplomats and advisers are meeting in Portugal on Friday for two days of talks, sending a signal that they see the threat from COVID-19 on their continent as waning, amid a quickening vaccine rollout.
Their talks hope to repair some of the damage the coronavirus has caused in the bloc, in such areas as welfare and employment. In a late addition to their agenda, EU leaders will also discuss Thursday's U.S. proposal to share the technology behind COVID-19 vaccines to help speed the end of the pandemic.
The leaders will also take part in an unprecedented meeting, via videoconference, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose country needs more help with a devastating virus surge — and who can smooth the path to an elusive bilateral trade deal.
Like across much of the world, COVID-19 forced high-level political talks to move online over the past year in Europe. This is the 27-nation bloc’s first face-to-face summit in five months, after an exceptional meeting in Brussels last December to discuss post-pandemic spending. Another in-person summit, in Brussels, is planned for later this month.
EU leaders appear keen to “try and convey a sense of normalcy, of slowly returning to normal,” says Antonio Barroso, a political analyst at Teneo, a global advisory firm.
That is a key consideration for southern EU countries like Portugal, Spain and Greece, where tourism is an economic mainstay.
Despite a slow start to its inoculation drive, the EU this week passed the milestone of 150 million vaccinations and reckons it can reach what it calls “sufficient community immunity” in two months’...
