European leaders attend in-person summit

COVID-19 protocols in full effect as officials meet face-to-face in Portugal

PORTO, PORTUGAL — European Union leaders and their large following of diplomats and advisers met Friday in Portugal for two days of in-person talks, signalling their belief that the threat from COVID-19 on the continent is waning amid a quickening vaccine rollout.

The pandemic was a constant presence, however. Meeting face-to-face for the first time this year, the leaders converged on a 19th-century riverside customs building in the picturesque Atlantic coast city of Porto. Face masks concealed their smiles but they enthusiastically bumped elbows and fists and chatted. They sat apart, without a table, in a large hall and balanced sheaves of paper on their laps, a small plastic water bottle at their feet.

“The (pandemic) recovery is still in an early stage,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen conceded in her opening speech.

Scores of police, staff and journalists wore masks and had to undergo PCR tests before being allowed to attend.

The summit hoped to repair some of the economic damage the pandemic has wreaked in the bloc. In a late addition, they were to discuss proposals to share COVID-19 vaccine technology to help speed the end of the pandemic for all the world.

Leaders called on the United States on Friday to start boosting its vaccine exports to contain the global COVID-19 crisis, and said the U.S. backing of patent waivers would provide only a long-term solution at best.

“We invite all those who engage in the debate of a waiver for (intellectual property) rights also to join us to commit to be willing to export a large share of what is being produced in that region,” said von der Leyen.

Von der Leyen said that any patent waiver “will not bring a single dose of vaccine in the short and medium term.”

Despite a slow start to its inoculation drive, the EU has passed the milestone of 150 million vaccinations and reckons it can reach what it calls “sufficient community immunity” in two months’ time. The European Commission has proposed relaxing restrictions on travel to the bloc this summer.

The summit made a splash in Porto, whose many hotels have been shut down since last spring.