The acceleration of COVID-19 cases across Europe has led to an EU summit scheduled for Thursday and Friday in Brussels to no longer be held in person, said a spokesman for European Council chief Charles Michel. 

Many countries in the EU have suffered a rise in coronavirus cases and are considering new lockdowns as they have struggled to get their vaccine drive up to speed. 

Michel, who organizes the regular leaders' meetings, has now made the decision to have it virtually "following the surge of #COVID19 cases in member states," his spokesman Barend Leyts tweeted on Sunday.

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The meeting is scheduled to address several sensitive topics, including deteriorating ties with Russia as well as Turkey, and disorganization in the EU response to the pandemic. 

EU diplomats said that leaders last week urged Michel to cancel the in-person meeting, though he had hoped to tighten sanitary measures to avoid reverting again to a videoconference.

The leaders have only met physically a handful of times since the pandemic began, most notably a four-day marathon in July to agree the EU's $896 billion recovery plan.

Diplomats complain that topics requiring delicate diplomacy cannot be properly addressed in a video meeting.

The leaders' next scheduled in-person meeting is in Porto, Portugal, on May 8.