No position expected from EU Council on sanctions

China’s sanctions against several European politicians, organizations, and academics are not on the agenda at the meeting of EU heads of state and government today. However, German government sources said that each head of state or government could raise individual issues that are not officially on the agenda before the virtual meeting. It is not seen that the EU Council „necessarily has to take a position on this“. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte had stressed after the sanctions from Beijing that the issue must be „taken up further in the European context“. The EU heads of state and government will also talk to US President Joe Biden.