MS Leaders To Hold COVID-19 Videoconference On 29 Oct-RTRS

Reuters reporting that EU member state leaders will hold a special videoconference on 29 October to discuss the second wave of COVID-19 infections spreading across the continent.

• Countries hit hard in the first wave of infections in the spring such as France, Spain, Belgium and Italy are all recording in around or in excess of 10k new cases per day, with fatalities ticking up.
• In what will be a major concern at the national and EU level is that countries in central and eastern Europe such as the Czech Republic and Poland are now recording new cases in the thousands every day.
• The EU institutions have yet to pass the long-term budget (the multiannual financial framework) that contains the EUR750bn COVID-19 recovery fund. As the cases mount across the EU there may be demands from countries not hit hard in the first wave to increase their share of the recovery fund as they suffer through the second wave, making passing the budget an even more difficult task.