Debate: Preparation of the European Council meeting of - December  - The EU's response to the global resurgence of Covid- and the new emerging Covid variants
Date: WEDNESDAY, 15 DECEMBER 2021
Speaker: Anže Logar
Language: EN

First, let me focus on the recent resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Leaders will have a working session in which they will discuss the ongoing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in response to rising numbers and the emergence of the new variant, Omicron. As Member States step up their measures, continued coordination remains vital to ensure that new restrictions are targeted and proportionate, and neither undermine the functioning of the single market, nor unnecessarily hamper free movement. Our best tool in fighting this pandemic is our vaccines, including booster shots. If our efforts are to be successful, we need to overcome vaccine hesitancy and fight disinformation. Leaders will also discuss global vaccine sharing efforts, where the EU plays a major role, having donated 118 million vaccine doses to 60 countries so far. The EU and its Member States will step up vaccine-sharing through COVAX and bilateral donation by committing to reach 700 million doses by mid-2022. Efforts are being made to help develop local manufacturing capacity. This pandemic has also taught us that we need to be better prepared for future crises. Leaders are expected to discuss crisis management and resilience on the basis of the Council conclusions agreed in November on this subject.  Now turning to the other subjects of tomorrow’s meeting. Following on from the October European Council, leaders will return to the topic of high and volatile energy prices. Following the publication of the preliminary report by the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), they are expected to invite the Commission to further examine the functioning of the electricity market and trading on the EU ETS market, and to follow up appropriately. Leaders are also expected to call for the swift examination of the proposals to revise the third energy package. During their working lunch, leaders will discuss both the deteriorating fundamental rights situation in Belarus and the humanitarian crisis at its borders caused by the Belarusian regime’s ongoing instrumentalisation of immigration. They will also exchange views on the worrying security threat at Ukraine’s border and see how to react to this. In the afternoon working session, leaders will assess the implementation of the June and October European Council conclusions on the external dimension of migration. Recent action plans for countries of origin and transit should be made operational and implemented without further delay, in cooperation with partner countries, and adequate financing must be mobilised for migration-related action on all routes. In the area of security and defence, leaders are expected to give guidance on an ambitious Strategic Compass and to call for a strengthened strategic partnership with NATO through a new joint declaration. Leaders are expected to come back to security and defence again in March 2022, when they will endorse the Strategic Compass. Relations between the European Union and the African Union are on the agenda, as leaders will discuss preparations for the new EU-African Union summit, scheduled for February next year. At the end of their meeting on Thursday, in the margins of the European Council, leaders will be joined by the President of the ECB and the Eurogroup for a Euro Summit in an inclusive format. Thank you very much for your attention.