EU will make pharmaceutical companies respect contracts they have signed for the supply of COVID-19 vaccines, European Council President Charles Michel said, quoted by Reuters.

A senior European Union official told Russian President Vladimir Putin by telephone on Friday to release opposition politician Alexei Navalny and demanded an investigation into the Kremlin critic’s poisoning last August.

The video conference of EU leaders dedicated to the coordination in the fight against the virus did not give the long-awaited hope that with the vaccines the life of Europeans will gradually return to normal. On the contrary, the debate was focused on additional urgent containment measures. The rapidly spreading new variants of the virus were among the major causes for concern.

On Thursday, when the video conference of the EU leaders on coordinating the pandemic response was still ongoing, Member States unanimously agreed by written procedure a recommendation setting a common framework for the use of rapid antigen tests and the mutual recognition of Covid-19 test results across the EU. 

On Thursday evening, European Council President Charles Michel will chair a video conference of the EU leaders that will focus on coordination of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including the large-scale roll-out of vaccines and the deployment of all available instruments to limit the spread of the virus.

During the video conference of the EU finance ministers of the euro area countries on Monday, the Covid-19 vaccination programmes rolled out all across Europe were defined by Paschal Donohoe, President of the Eurogroup, as a light at the end of the tunnel. 

The vaccine roll-out across Europe and preparing the EU leaders' video conference on Covid-19 coordination that will be held on 21 January were among of the main topics of the informal video conference of European affairs ministers held on Monday. It was the first meeting under the Portugal’s Presidency of the Council, chaired by Ana Paula Zacarias, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs.

EC President Ursula von der Leyen visited on Friday Lisbon on the occasion of the beginning of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU, that started on 1 January this year. Due to the sanitary measures in place, the usual trip of the whole College of Commissioners for the launching event of each Council Presidency, this time was held in a smaller format.

Assessing the state of play of the EU’s strategy for fighting the Covid-19 pandemic and the vaccine rollout in the different Member States, was the main item on the agenda of the informal video conference of the European Union Health Ministers. The meeting, held on Wednesday, was chaired by Marta Temido, Portugal’s Health Minister.

The next videoconference with EU27 on Covid-19 coordination will be held on 21 January at 6pm and will be chaired by the European Council President Charles Michel, EUCO Spokesman Barend Leyts tweeted on Friday.