With various patterns, including roosters from Barcelos, the surgical masks are personalised, with each head of state or government receiving white masks with their name inscribed and the respective national flag.

The heads of state and government started a mid-morning summit in Brussels today, which is expected to be long, during which they will try to reach an agreement on the European economic recovery regarding the crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic.

Today, upon his arrival at the Council, António Costa reiterated his desire for a “quick agreement” around the proposal to relaunch the European economy, hoping that the Council will not waste any more time, not least because the proposal on the table is “excellent”.

“We have an excellent proposal from the Commission. The President of the Council did a great job to accommodate the different criticisms from the different Member States. Now, it is up to the Council not to postpone, not to waste time, and to take the decisions that are quickly necessary to respond to what is urgency for the economy, for employment, for the economy recovery of Europe”, declared the Prime Minister, who said that Portugal is ready to approve the current proposal.