Meeting takes place on Friday ahead of regular EU summit

The prime ministers of Portugal, Spain Italy and Greece will be meeting in Rome on Friday ahead of a regular summit of European Union leaders the following week, the Italian government has said.

A Greek government source has told Reuters that the will focus on energy issues.

Spain’s Pedro Sanchez and Portugal’s António Costa will meet Italian Premier Mario Draghi in person, while Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who has tested positive for COVID-19, will join them via video link.

The EU summit they are meeting head of will take place in Brussels on Thursday and Friday next week (March 24-25).

In a two-day gathering in France last week, heads of EU countries discussed ways to reduce economic exposure to Moscow and cut Russian energy imports by 2027.

The leaders said they were ready to impose harsher economic sanctions on Russia as a result of its invasion of Ukraine as well as giving Ukraine more funds for arms for the country’s fight back. It is understood these discussion in France will be further developed at the meeting in Brussels next week, says Reuters.