Relations between the US and Russia warmed up slightly after a summit in Switzerland, even as the EU predicted ties with Russia would get worse in future.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, along with Ecre, a Brussels-base NGO, have proposed a plan to increase sea rescues. The call comes ahead of an EU summit later this month among EU heads of state and government.

"Now I can go to the bank?," asked Portuguese prime minister António Costa to EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, as the EU executive approved his country's national Covid-19 recovery plan.

The EU does not expect US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson to meet its goal of delivering 55 million Covid-19 vaccines for the second quarter of 2021, due to a manufacturing issue.

The revamped Renewable Energy Directive next month should set an EU binding renewable energy target of at least 50% by 2030, paving the way towards transition to a 100 percent renewable-energy based system by 2040.

The EU and US have ended their oldest trade war in a show of transatlantic unity one day before US president Joe Biden meets his Russian counterpart.