Premier Mario Draghi told a press
conference after the EU summit Friday that "the pandemic is not
over, we aren't out of it yet, and it must still be faced with
determination, attention and vigilance".
Faced with the rising threat from the Delta variant, Draghi said
more vaccines, testing and tracing were needed.
He said the Delta variant spurs uncertainty on recovery.
Draghi went on: "a reinforcement or perhaps a reform of the
European Medicines Agency is needed."
On vaccines, he said "the criticism was that Sputnik didn't
succeed in getting EMA's approval and perhaps it never will. The
Chinese vaccine is not adequate for addressing the pandemic".
Draghi said he was satisfied with EU pledges on migrants and now
they had to be implemented.
"My goal was not to obtain an accord on resettlement, it was
premature to get a deal that was advantageous to us...the text
of the conclusions is very significant".
He said a pan-EU deal was needed but he did not rule out deals
between individual countries.
On Russia, the Italian premier said Moscow "is an important
actor on the economic and political front, it cannot not be
involved, we have to keep up an active dialogue. At the same
time we must be frank on what is not right, the cyber attack,
the spying, the disinformation, the respect for human rights. We
need cooperation and frankness".
He said "an attempt to meet in the EU-Russia format had to be
done. I maintained the need to do so, because rather than being
doubtful on their own power, the EU countries must be proud of
the display of strength that they show when they speak together.
The Nordic countries have susbstantially abandoned the idea for
the moment, because they are closer to Russia."
In other remarks, Draghi said the National Recovery and
Resilience Plans (NRRPs), allied to national fiscal policies,
would boost EU growth rates higher than pre-COVID levels and
said that expansionary fiscal policies ere needed.
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