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In recent days, several European Union countries have announced that they will independently make some decisions about the purchase of coronavirus vaccines, exceeding the community approach followed so far.
On Monday, the governments of Austria and Denmark, which are part of the most economically conservative group of countries, announced that in the coming days they will discuss with the Israeli government a possible partnership to host production centers of the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna in their territory. ., and thus obtain a preferential route in the supply of vaccines compared to European contracts.
Austria and Denmark are only the last to decide to move independently. Hungary, a country led by a semi-authoritarian government, is also using the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine in the mass administration campaign, neither of which have been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Slovakia also received 2 million doses of Sputnik V yesterday, while Poland and the Czech Republic are in talks with China and Russia, respectively, to receive vaccine supplies.
Until now, national governments had respected EU agreements to entrust negotiations with pharmaceutical companies to the European Commission, in order to have a greater bargaining force. In fact, the Commission won contracts at lower prices and more advantageous terms than, for example, the United States and the United Kingdom, but only after months of lengthy negotiations.
– Read also: Why Europe is behind on vaccines
The Commission has also placed a lot of emphasis on the vaccine produced by the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca for generally understandable reasons: it is produced mainly in Europe, it is one of the least expensive and easiest to store, and the booster dose is also can remotely manage.Three months. The drastic reduction in supplies announced by AstraZeneca at the end of January, never fully explained by the company, nevertheless had a strong impact on European vaccination campaigns, which are still somewhat behind schedule compared to other Western countries.
As the New York Times, The Community approach has particularly benefited small European countries, which otherwise would not have been able to afford to negotiate advantageous terms with pharmaceutical companies; for the moment, however, it seems less convenient for medium and large European countries, which by moving independently would probably have been able to receive a greater number of doses than today.
Some governments have openly criticized the European approach. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz told the picture that the EMA has been “too slow” in the approval of vaccines, and that in the future his country “should not depend solely on the European Union for the production of vaccines”. The Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, was less critical of the European institutions, but on Monday in a public event she stressed that “we may find ourselves having to vaccinate again, perhaps once a year: for this we must strongly strengthen the vaccine production “. ».
Citing a source close to Kurz, the Financial times wrote that Austria, Denmark and Israel are in a very advanced stage of negotiations with Pfizer and Moderna and that the Austrian government has already identified a location to establish a vaccination center.
The conditions are being created for a scenario that the EU institutions have wanted to avoid since the first months of the pandemic: allowing each country to move in no particular order. European officials believe that this approach could weaken both internal cohesion between European countries and the Union’s image in countries most sensitive to Russian and Chinese influence, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe.
– Read also: When it comes to vaccines, the Western Balkans look more east than west
Answering a question from Financial times, the Commission said it was not informed of the Austrian and Danish government plans and therefore cannot comment on the news. In an interview published this morning in the Financial times, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has tried to downplay the accusations, arguing that supply delays should run out in a few weeks, and that in the coming months European countries “will have many more doses than they will need” “.
According to several observers, the increase in supplies expected in the coming months, also made possible by the availability of new vaccines such as Johnson & Johnson, whose authorization is scheduled for mid-March, should speed up vaccination campaigns throughout Europe.
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