A three-week diplomatic tour will bring Europe\u2019s top priorities into focus, with one financial decision looming over every conversation.<\/p>\n
European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa will conduct his annual \u201cTour of Capitals\u201d from August 25 to September 17. Over the course of several weeks, he plans to meet with the leaders of most European Union countries.<\/p>\n
The European Council press service reported that the series of visits is intended to align the positions of heads of state and government ahead of upcoming European Council meetings and international summits. One of the key topics of discussion will be the development of the EU\u2019s next long-term budget.<\/p>\n
Defence, competitiveness, enlargement and support for Ukraine will be at the heart of my discussions with European leaders during my upcoming \u201cTour of Capitals\u201d. But, of course, the main topic will be the EU\u2019s next long-term budget. These exchanges provide a vital 360-degree view of the priorities and expectations of the Member States.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Ant\u00f3nio Costa<\/p>\n
First meetings as part of the \u201cTour of Capitals\u201d<\/p>\n
The first leg of Ant\u00f3nio Costa\u2019s trip will include five capitals in Central and Baltic Europe: Bratislava, Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius and Prague.<\/p>\n
On August 25 in Bratislava, Ant\u00f3nio Costa will hold talks with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.
\nOn August 25 in Tallinn, a meeting with Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal is scheduled.
\nOn August 26 in Riga, talks will be held with Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs.
\nOn August 26 in Vilnius, Costa will meet with Lithuanian President Gitanas Naus\u0117da.
\nOn August 27 in Prague, talks with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babi\u0161 are scheduled.<\/p>\n
Support for Ukraine among EU priorities<\/p>\n
Support for Ukraine, security issues, defence capabilities, economic competitiveness and EU enlargement will be important elements of the consultations with the leaders of member states.<\/p>\n
On the eve of the launch of the \u201cTour of Capitals\u201d, Ant\u00f3nio Costa arrived in Kyiv on the day of the 35th anniversary of Ukraine\u2019s Independence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A three-week diplomatic tour will bring Europe\u2019s top priorities into focus, with one financial decision looming over every…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[138],"tags":[428,89678,20301,13712,89679,89680,1090,50,6397],"class_list":["post-200599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-antonio-costa","tag-antonio-costa","tag-antonio-costa-eu-tour-of-capitals-european-council-eu-long-term-budget-ukraine-support-eu-defense-eu-enlargement","tag-eu-defense","tag-eu-enlargement","tag-eu-long-term-budget","tag-eu-tour-of-capitals","tag-european-council","tag-news","tag-ukraine-support"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117152557417982335","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}