Ursula von der Leyen

The head of the European Commission thanked Turkey's president for attending and contributing to the international Coronavirus Global Response conference.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is to participate in the intenational initiative Coronavirus Global Response at 4 p.m. Greek time on Monday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will attend a videoconference meeting of the EU this week about a fundraising campaign on supporting vaccine studies against the COVID-19 pandemic, Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın said on May 2.

Turkish and European Commission leaders on May 1 held a phone talk to discuss matters of mutual interests, Turkey's Communications Directorate said in a statement.

According to the statement, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen discussed cooperation in the fight against the novel coronavirus, bilateral ties, and regional issues.

The European Union will spare no effort to help the world come together against coronavirus, said Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, at the joint press conference with a number of world leaders, which the World Health Organization hosted on 24 April.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday the next seven-year EU budget linked to a recovery fund was the only way to steer the bloc out of the COVID-19 crisis and that its size had to increase.

Despite political obstacles, dialogue between Turkey and the EU has benefited amid the mutual fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic, a senior Turkish diplomat said on April 22. 

In her address to the EP, she called for the urgent establishment of a "Marshall Plan for Europe", primarily through the EU budget.
In her speech on the EU response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ursula von der Leyen before the European Parliament expressed her condolences for the "tens of thousands of victims" of coronavirus in Europe.

The European Union's next long-term budget should be used to sponsor economic recovery after the coronavirus pandemic, the heads of the bloc's Brussels-based institutions said on Wednesday.

"As pandemic spreads, rival powers deploy soft power and aid to advance its foreign policy goals", British "The Guardian" reports in an article entitled "Coronavirus diplomacy: how Russia, China and EU vie to win over Serbia".