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In the bitter dispute over the distribution of 10 million early vaccination doses from Biontech / Pfizer, EU states found a solution on Thursday. However, only 24 EU states participate in solidarity compensation for lagging states. Austria, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, which were against the initial proposal of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU, will receive their share of the population. In the case of Austria, that’s 198,815 cans.
The distribution of the vaccine has divided the EU states, the EU ambassadors could not agree on a common line after two days of negotiations. The solution that has now been agreed was found in a silent procedure initiated by the EU presidency, in which no objection was raised until 7:00 p.m., according to diplomats.
Austria did not distribute any vaccination doses
Around 2.85 million of the ten million cans are used as solidarity compensation. Bulgaria now receives 1.15 million more doses than the usual dispensing formula. For Croatia it is 683,514 cans, for Slovakia 602,255, for Latvia 376,456 and for Estonia 41,390. For the support campaign to be possible, all 19 countries had to give up about 30 percent of their vaccination doses: Germany gave 558,000 doses, France 450,000 and Italy 404,000.
The Vienna Federal Chancellery said that the approximately 199,000 doses of vaccine for Austria were a “solid result”, but that the “lack of solidarity with the Czech Republic” was “absolutely incomprehensible”. Austria noted the problem of uneven distribution of vaccines. “It is good that this has been recognized in the EU and that the solidarity mechanism is aimed at reducing this inequality in the distribution of vaccines for some seriously affected countries, such as Croatia and Bulgaria.”
Austria does not receive 139,000 vaccine doses as planned in the initial proposal, but an additional 199,000 doses in the second quarter, which is a strong result for Austria. “It is incomprehensible, however, that the Czech Republic, a neighboring country to Austria with still high case and mortality rates, is not receiving the doses of vaccine it would need to compensate for the imbalance.” That is why Austria, Slovenia and the Czech Republic rejected this proposal because they lacked solidarity. “Austria is now discussing with other member states how we can support the Czech Republic bilaterally in the interest of European solidarity,” the Federal Chancellery continued.
Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovenia had expressed reservations on the original proposal of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU to distribute the 10 million Biontech / Pfizer cans. The EU presidency initially wanted to use three million of the ten million cans for solidarity compensation. According to this, there would be 139,170 cans in Austria.
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP), along with five Eastern European countries, insisted on a correction mechanism for vaccine distribution. However, recently, the EU partners did not get it with their additional demands, as Austria already has a relatively high vaccination rate. However, Austria is likely to be left behind at the end of June because it has not exhausted its quota of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which will be delivered from mid-April.
The reason for the inequalities is that not all countries bought the amounts of vaccine that were offered, partly for cost reasons. Anyone who has relied on the AstraZeneca vaccine is now particularly affected by delivery issues from this manufacturer. (apa)
