BRUSSELS — The second summit of the month will be held in Brussels on Thursday, with Turkey expected to once again rank high on the agenda. The European Council meeting will start at 15:00 (Brussels time).

Also high in the Council's priorities is the pandemic, with coronavirus outbreaks exceeding 38 million worldwide and six million in Europe. The 27 leaders of the member-states are expected to discuss both the coordination of their actions and the creation and distribution of vaccines against Covid-19.

Turkey's continued unilateral actions will once again occupy the summit, just weeks after the special summit on EU-Turkey relations, following Ankara's latest moves. "The European Council will assess where we are, regarding the situation with Turkey," a European source told reporters, underlining the "EU's solidarity with Greece and Cyprus".

At the same time, the same source noted that "the president of the European Council is closely monitoring the situation."

"The European Council is meeting again today. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is already in Brussels, where both he and the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, will outline the latest challenges from Turkey to the leaders of the EU member states, with the opening of the Famagusta beach front and the sailing of the Uruc Reis in areas that overlap with parts of the Greek continental shelf. Especially the fact that both of these provocative moves by Ankara directly conflict with specific paragraphs of the conclusions of the recent summit," government spokesperson Stelios Petsas said.

Petsas stressed: "Greece remains firmly committed to the position expressed by the prime minister since the first incident involving the Turkish research vessel and is summarised in the phrase: The challenges stop, the talks begin."