Renew leaders meet at the 'Palais d'Egmont' ahead to the European Council in Brussels.

Brussels

meeting

MACRON, Emmanuel (FR)

MICHEL, Charles (BE)

BETTEL, Xavier (LU)

VESTAGER, Margrethe (DK, CE)

DE CROO, Alexander (BE)

MARTIN, Micheál (IE)

SÉJOURNÉ, Stéphane (Renew, FR)

Renew Europe

BRETON, Thierry (FR, EC)

European Council meeting 16 December 2021 (T)

Renew leaders meet ahead of the European Council : arrivals and roundtable

Title: Renew leaders meet ahead of the European Council: arrivals and roundtable 

General view of the Egmont Palace, in Brussels (1 shot)

SOUNDBITE (French), St&#233;phane S&#201;JOURN&#201; (Renew, FR), President of Renew Group, We will obviously be talking about the Council's agenda, obviously about the responses to the crisis. What about the last few days, since the European Parliament also discussed the situation of the fifth wave, as the group made us proposals within the framework of this fifth wave to obtain answers on the economic aspect, on the health aspect, to have a better European coordination, especially in this period.

Arrival of Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council

Arrival of Alexander DE CROO, Belgian Prime Minister

SOUNDBITE (English), Alexander DE CROO, Belgian Prime Minister, I think it would be a good thing to have alignment on that. I think we've done that in the past and it does help to be able to travel. And we know that in the weeks to come, quite a lot of people will be travelling, but we're pleading here to align as much as possible and to make travel easy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alexander DE CROO, Belgian Prime Minister, I think it's important to emphasise that vaccination remains the key element, and it motivates people to vaccinate. And a booster vaccine is something that offers a high level of protection. So to try to harmonise as much as possible, understand that some countries are trying to look at combining vaccination together with testing. I think that the best solution is the booster vaccine.

SOUNDBITE (English), Thierry BRETON, European Commissioner for Internal Market , Of course, we need to make sure that we'll be able to produce vaccine and deliver a vaccine outside of Europe. We are the first one from far in terms of exporting vaccine, which is something extremely important. But we need to make sure that for everyone outside of Europe and especially in Africa.

SOUNDBITE (English), Thierry BRETON, European Commissioner for Internal Market, The first one is to have more factories in Africa. I was in Senegal myself, saw a manufacturing plant in Africa, in Senegal. We will have another one in South Africa, in Rwanda, in Ghana. We are pushing this very hard, which is extremely important. And of course, now we will discuss how to increase the donation.

Arrival of Emmanuel MACRON, French President

Arrival of Margrethe VESTAGER, Executive Vice-President of the EC

Cutaways of Emmanuel MACRON, French President (1 shot)

Cutaway of Xavier BETTEL, Luxembourgish Prime Minister (1 shot)

SOUNDBITE (English), Xavier BETTEL, Luxembourgish Prime Minister, You know, it's a national decision, but for me, it's a common problem and really common solutions. And afterwards, for me, what is very important on the agenda today is that we decide about how long the COVID certificate is valid because it will be five months, six months, seven months, eight month, nine months. It's a disaster, you know, so I hope we will be able to agree on nine months, and not soon todaym and also about the fact when the booster has to be done, it goes from three to four to five to six months, and it would be good also to have a common position on that.

SOUNDBITE (English), Xavier BETTEL, Luxembourgish Prime Minister, And finally, you know, for the jab for children, we, for example, like country, are waiting for these American studies to see how the impact was on on young children. And I hope this will be soon because we see that parents especially now when they have contact with grandparents and older ones to children to be vaccinated. And we need a fast answer on the topic and we need these American studies as soon as possible. So there are a lot of work today.

Arrival of Martin MICHEAL, Irish Prime Minister

SOUNDBITE (English), Miche&#225;l MARTIN, Irish Prime Minister, I think there are a very general, very strong commitment to unity of purpose in a response to any violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty. And the meeting did not get into specifics. But suffice to say that this would be taken very seriously, obviously by the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (English), Miche&#225;l MARTIN, Irish Prime Minister, A number of pillories to combat that one clear is the vaccination programme to boosters. The other one is testing. And the agency in Ireland has very strong proposals to expand testing, both PCR testing and antigen testing. And I suggest that we're looking in early January of a combined capacity of about 350000 per week between PCR and antigen.

SOUNDBITE (English), Miche&#225;l MARTIN, Irish Prime Minister, For the next 12 months with vaccinationm,the Commission is looking at working with the pharmaceutical companies now, for example, for an Omicron specific vaccine, that's undercurrents, that's on the agenda. You add the antivirals. What you're seeing really is science catching up with this virus.