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Politico (22 September 2020)

European Council President Charles Michel on Tuesday unexpectedly postponed this week's EU leaders' summit, saying a close encounter with coronavirus had forced him to self-quarantine.

Michel's decision to put off the summit set for Thursday and Friday by a week will delay crucial foreign policy decisions. But even more ominously it showed the pandemic continuing to disrupt democracy at the highest levels, and it raised the prospect of further tumult as infections surge across Europe.

At this week's meeting, EU leaders were due to discuss relations with Turkey, including worsening tensions with Greece and Cyprus(*) over energy drilling in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as disagreements between Brussels and Ankara over the 2016 migration deal that helped stem a flow of refugees that had reached crisis levels.

(*) AVİM uses "Cyprus" as a geographic name. AVİM considers the expression "Republic of Cyprus" to mean the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus.

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