BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Thursday that EU leaders should be discussing shortfalls in cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic as his country faced a troubling second wave of infections.

Babis said EU leaders meeting for a summit from Thursday had forgotten to put the most important topic on its agenda – COVID-19 – saying that cooperation between epidemiologists and health ministers was not working.

“Now our country is facing the second wave. We were one of the best during the first wave, but now of course we are in a different situation and we don’t want to close the economy any more,” he said on arrival for the summit in Brussels.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop)

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