Virus-free zone? EU leaders hold special summit in empty building

Record ID: 1562816

  • Title: Virus-free zone? EU leaders hold special summit in empty building
  • Date: 17th July 2020
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (JULY 17, 2020) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (French) MEMBER OF THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESS SERVICE, GIUSEPPE FULVO, SAYING: "In the room where the summit takes place, there are distances of 1.5 metres between each head of state. They're alone. We have limited staff from all departments, in all rooms, be it in the council room, in the hallways, in the buildings."
  • Embargoed: 31st July 2020 16:23
  • Keywords: European Union coronavirus distance empty journalists leaders measures restrictions safety summit
  • Location: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • City: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: European Union,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA005CN785DZ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: European Union leaders gathered on Friday (July 17) for their first face-to-face summit since February in an empty European Council building, as most journalists had been banned from attending due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
    The usual 700 accredited Brussels-based correspondents and their radio and TV crews, usually clamouring for news, left the huge, marble-clad atrium of the adjoining Justus Lipsius building completely empty.
    Gathered for talks on a multi-billion-euro plan to breathe life into their economies, the 27 EU leaders sat in a chamber designed for more than 10 times that number in an almost-empty building where meeting rooms were cleaned every time presidents and prime ministers took a break.
    Headphones and microphones were regularly disinfected, filtered air was pumped into the meeting chamber and leaders, who wore a range of sombre and colourful face masks, were asked to keep a distance of 1.5 metres between them.
    After being locked in the room for more than seven hours, EU leaders seemed no closer to a deal on the bloc's 2021-27 budget, proposed at above 1 trillion euros, and a linked new recovery fund worth 750 billion euros, meant to help rebuild southern economies most affected by the pandemic.
    They called a break until 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) to allow for smaller huddles to try to break deadlocks.
    (Production: Hortense de Roffignac)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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