The members of the European Council hold a video conference on 25 and 26 January 2021. The EU leaders focus on speeding up the authorisation, production and distribution of vaccines. https://www.eudebates.tv/debates/eu-policies/enlargement-and-foreign-affairs/borrell-europe-faces-threat-from-russia-china-and-turkey/ They discuss on ways to strengthen the EU's preparedness for health threats, to improve EU coordination and to ensure better prevention and response to future health emergencies.
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Leaders also have a discussion on travel restrictions and on the need to ensure the flow of goods and services in the single market. Furthermore, leaders talk on improving access to vaccines for priority groups in the neighbourhood and beyond.
The second day, they have a discussion on security and defence and exchange views on EU-NATO cooperation together with Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General. As a follow-up, EU leaders hold a strategic debate on strengthening the EU's security and defence policy. They also review how to increase the EU’s resilience against cyberattacks and hybrid threats.
Finally, the leaders hold a strategic discussion on a renewed and reinforced partnership with the Southern Neighbourhood.
European Council - February 2021 - Josep Borrell
[Today, the European Union] leaders will discuss two very important topics: Security and Defence and our relations with our Southern Neighbourhood.
On Security and Defence, it is the first discussion at the European Union Council in this area since December 2018.
I think it is a timely discussion, as we are advancing on the Strategic Compass. I will inform the European Union leaders about the ongoing work and next steps. We need to find a common understanding of the challenges that threat the European Union, the challenges we are facing, in order to propose ways to tackle them all together.
This exercise is the first ever [EU]-wide threat analysis. It was presented last November. It was incorporated as the first step on this process. Now, we will need to identify concrete objectives that will guide our future work in Security and Defence for the years to come.
We are developing new tools: the European Defence Fund and the European Peace Facility that will provide resources for our defence industry and will help better our partners.
This discussion is a very important part of our transatlantic relations.
At the Council today, the Secretary-General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg will participate at the beginning of the meeting, as a clear sign of the close partnership that the European Union has with NATO, a clear sign of the partnership between the two organisations. Our cooperation has been advancing in the past and will continue doing so. There is a strong demand in the current difficult and challenging environment for the European Union and NATO to work more closely together.