VIRUS INJECTS URGENCY INTO EU MEET
Leaders struggle to present a unified, bloc-wide approach in the wake of lightning spread of Omicron
Brussels, Dec. 16: The lightning spread of Omicron in Europe and elsewhere added a sense of urgency to an EU summit on Thursday, with leaders struggling to present a united, bloc-wide approach.
Projections that the highly infectious Covid strain could be dominant in the EU as early as next month have pushed the issue to the top of the agenda and ignited fears of a health crisis.
Arriving at the Brussels meeting, Irish premier Micheal Martin said Omicron was “of significant concern obviously in terms of the capacity of that variant to spread rapidly and create pressure on our societies and our health systems. “So today we’ll be looking for greater coordination on a number of fronts,” he said.
As France imposed drastic new restrictions on arrivals from Britain, which is outside the EU and particularly hard hit by the variant, Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Europe would have to expect “new measures”. “The one answer to Omicron right now is the acceleration of our vaccination programmes with particular emphasis on the booster shots,” he said, describing the measures as “a battle gainst time”.
The summit will also tackle other big topics pressing hard on EU capitals, in particular the Russian military build-up that could presage an invasion of Ukraine.
That risk dominated a get-together on Wednesday between EU leaders and their neighbouring eastern European counterparts, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. An ongoing confrontation with Belarus
over migration flows testing the EU’s borders and spiking energy prices aggravating sky-high inflation round out the highlevel talks.
It all made for a charged summit, the last before France takes over the rotating six-month European Union presidency from Slovenia. —