Remarks by President Charles Michel following the European Council meeting on 16 December 2021 - Main contents
Thank you very much. First of all, I would like to start by warmly thanking Janez Janša and all the teams for successfully conducting the Slovenian Presidency, for the commitment with which they have worked, over the last six months, to resolve, together with the Commission and the European Parliament, a number of issues which are important for the future of the European project. Thank you for this very active cooperation.
I intend to be very brief. We had a very long meeting today, with many important and difficult topics on the agenda. You have all the information about the conclusions, but I would like to focus on three important elements.
First, COVID-19. We again spent time in order to exchange views to have the same level of understanding and information. Scientific data is key when it comes to this new variant Omicron. We are totally committed to accelerating the third doses. We are also totally committed to strengthening the level of coordination regarding mobility - intra-EU and with third countries. A fourth important point is international solidarity. Systematically, when we address COVID-19 at the European Council we affirm our strong commitment, not only with words, but with concrete deliveries of vaccines. We have exported a lot of vaccines since the beginning of the crisis and we have taken important commitments and we are delivering. The Commission shared with leaders the latest available information, and it shows that we are a strong international partner.
The first point was COVID. You have the conclusions, we are committed, we are taking the situation seriously. We want to continue to cooperate.
The second point, which led to long, extremely useful and intense discussions, is the situation in Ukraine and Russia. Yesterday, in the framework of the Eastern Partnership, we had the opportunity to start our discussions with our partners, including the President of Ukraine, on this situation. We had the opportunity, in a debate which was extremely useful — I am fully convinced of that — first, to show the European Union’s steadfast, total and complete unity in expressing our solidarity with regard to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to say, calmly but firmly, that if there were to be a military aggression against Ukraine, the consequences would be massive and that we are ready to coordinate very concrete and very operational measures with all our partners and allies. And the Normandy format is the format that needs to be operational in order to implement the Minsk agreements.
With regard to international affairs, we also discussed other topics. I would like to mention one point: we listened to the Lithuanian President, who told colleagues about tensions with China. And I want to reaffirm here our solidarity with the Member States, Lithuania in this case, which are under pressure from China.
And finally, after approving the conclusions on all the issues relating to security, defence, migration, and Belarus, we had a rather long debate on energy. This is a serious issue, it is an important issue that has an impact on households, on their purchasing power, and which also has an impact on businesses, on the competitiveness of European businesses. At the last European Council, we suggested that the Commission should be able to commission studies, which it did. Initial studies were made available and we were able to have an exchange of views on the subject. However, it has to be acknowledged that the differences around the table did not allow an agreement to be reached tonight on the text of the conclusions that were presented. This means that we will remain engaged on this issue, which will be on the agenda again at a forthcoming European Council.
These, in a few points, were the main topics discussed, although, as you will have understood, my remarks are not exhaustive.
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