EU Council President Michel on virus, climate agreement, US relations

European Union leaders reached a hard-fought deal Friday to cut the bloc's net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by the end of the decade compared with 1990 levels, avoiding a hugely embarrassing deadlock ahead of a U.N. climate meeting this weekend. Following night-long discussions at their two-day summit in Brussels, the 27 member states approved the EU executive commission's proposal to toughen the bloc's intermediate target on the way to climate neutrality by mid-century, after a group of reluctant, coal-reliant countries finally agreed to support the improved goal.

''Was it easy? No, it wasn't easy," said EU Council President Charles Michel as daylight broke over the EU capital city.Five years after the Paris agreement, the EU wants to be a leader in the fight against global warming. Yet the bloc's heads of state and government were unable to agree on the new target the last time they met in October, mainly because of financial concerns by eastern nations seeking more clarity about how to fund and handle the green transition.

During a news conference, Michel also said EU member states agreed to ''equal and fair access'' to COVID-19 vaccines. On the results of the US elections, he said the EU would seek to restore multilateral engagement to the very top of the international agenda.

(Image Credit: AP)