The European Union must ask Russia to reduce tensions with Ukraine when EU leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said.
Before the EU summit this week, Draghi said the bloc must renew its support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Ukraine accuses Russia of massing around 100,000 troops in preparation for a possible military offensive, raising concerns that a simmering conflict in Ukraine's eastern Donbass region could erupt into a war between the neighbours.
Draghi said the EU must unambiguously express its opposition to the use of migrants by the Belarusian regime. Thousands of migrants are stuck on the EU's eastern frontier, in what the EU believes is a crisis Minsk has engineered by distributing Belarusian visas in the Middle East, flying them in and pushing them across the border.
Draghi said in his speech to parliament that the intentional use of migrants for political purposes is unacceptable.
Draghi said that the EU must accelerate its efforts to provide COVID 19 vaccines to poor countries because of the emergence of the highly contagious Omicron coronaviruses, first identified in Africa.
Draghi said that he was certain Rome would meet all the policy objectives agreed with the EU for this year to get loans and grants from the bloc's Recovery Fund to help countries recover from the COVID 19 epidemic.
With international energy prices continuing to rise, Draghi said that the government was ready to provide more funds if necessary to limit the increase in household energy bills.
His multi-party coalition has already stumped up 4 billion euros $4.51 billion this year to cap gas and electricity bills, and has committed a similar amount in 2022.