Nursing staff wait for the Covid 19 vaccine by AstraZeneca at the CUS Turin University Sports Center on March 14, 2021 in Turin, Italy.
Stefano Goody | Getty Images News | Getty Images
LONDON – After AstraZeneca cut its delivery targets once again, six members of the European Union have expressed concern over how the Block Covid-19 vaccine is being distributed.
On Saturday, Austria, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia wrote letters to the European Commission complaining that pockets were not being delivered proportionately to the 27 countries that make up the European Union.
“If this system continues, it will continue to generate and increase inequality in member countries by this summer,” CNBC said in a letter.
It was initially agreed that the vaccine purchased by the EU would be given in proportion to the size of the country’s population. But some countries introduced flexibility in the system so that they could choose a more specific vaccine based on cost and maintenance conditions.
The European Commission responded to the letter by saying that the distribution was a “transparent process” and that it was the decision of member states to introduce this relief.
“Under this system, if a member state decides not to take its side Allocations, doses are redistributed to other interested member countries, ”the commission said in a statement.
According to media reports, for example, Bulgaria chose to get fewer Pfizer and Bioentech shots, the most expensive of the vaccines, and more shots developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. As a result, other EU countries were able to buy excess Pfizer and Bioentech vaccines.
The Bulgarian government was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC on Monday.
If we did not have a commission to do this work on behalf of the European Union, this competition and the issues with which you opened up in this interview (with whom) would have been greater.
Paschal Donoho
Eurogroup President
According to figures from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Bulgaria and other signatories are among the EU countries that have received fewer vaccines so far.
He worries that without any change, some EU countries will “reach mob resistance in a few weeks, while others will lag behind”, he said in his letter.
His complaint follows news that AstraZeneca will not meet its delivery targets next month. The Swedish-British pharmaceutical company confirmed to CNBC on Monday that it would deliver 30 million doses to the EU by the end of the first quarter and 70 million doses during the second quarter.
These numbers are less than the block expected to receive.
The European official said, “Knowing why they are coming forward with this matter, Austria is a member of the steering board like 26 other member countries, and has been informed of previous allocations like the others.” The name will be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, the CBBC said on Sunday.
This comment suggests that the six countries would have acted internally on the issue rather than writing a letter on the issue and making it public.
Ireland’s finance minister, Pascal Donoho, told CNBC on Monday that if the European Commission had not been tasked with overseeing vaccine distribution, the issues would have been “greater.”
It is expected to be discussed at the next European summit later this month.
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