End-of-year EU summit will cap off tumultuous 2016

EUROPEAN political leaders will meet in Brussels on Thursday for the final summit of one of the most tumultuous ever years for the European Union. The session will continue the process of mapping out how Europe best moves forward after "Brexit" in the context of what could be another highly uncertain 2017 election year with national ballots in the Netherlands, France and Germany.

The formal agenda for the meeting also has a Russian and Ukrainian theme. European Council president Donald Tusk asserted last month that he anticipates the session will see renewal of EU sanctions against Moscow, including curbs on access to international financing, and restrictions of defence and energy cooperation.

Correspondingly, the EU's future relationship with Ukraine will also be discussed following European Commission president Jean- Claude Juncker's announcement last month that the EU will grant Ukrainians visa-free travel across the continent by the end of 2016. While Brussels would now like to see stronger political, economic and trade ties - with Ukraine getting "associate status" with the EU - this has caused tensions in the Netherlands, which is still haunted by the MH17 disaster in which 196 Dutch citizens died when an aircraft was shot down over Ukraine.