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Mistakes in the procurement of coronavirus vaccines have also crept into Brussels and member states, admitted European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans in an interview with a newspaper on Sunday. The Dutch Social Democratic politician explained in an interview with Der Tagesspiegel that a review is needed at the end of the epidemic to determine exactly where decision makers made mistakes. At the moment, he added, the focus should be on making vaccines available across Europe.
At the same time, Timmermans insisted that the joint procurement of vaccines had saved Europe from a “tragedy”. If access were determined solely by economic power, some countries would not have received enough vaccination:
It would be a problem, and not just for the poorest countries, if only the richest Member States could afford to buy vaccines. This has been recognized by the EU members of the Vaccine Alliance, including Germany and the Netherlands. These countries have seen better joint European action.
Last year, the European Commission agreed with five pharmaceutical companies to support the development of vaccines in advance, in exchange for large quantities of vaccines being contracted in advance. Later, however, several pharmaceutical manufacturers did not fully comply with the agreement, prompting strong criticism from several member states, including Hungary. On Friday, the governments of five EU countries launched an EU summit to investigate problems with the procurement of vaccines, and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a radio interview on Sunday that Brussels stabbed the procurement, thus vaccination in Europe remains low.
The Index had previously interviewed the head of the European Commission Representation in Budapest, and Gábor Zupkó was also asked about the problems of EU joint procurement. The diplomat at the time partially acknowledged the mistakes and said the committee did not recognize in time that Europe had low production capacity.
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