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Covid vaccination plans in Europe risk another setback: a cut of at least half of AstraZeneca doses planned for the second quarter. The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company reportedly made it known during its meetings with the EU, Reuters writes, citing a European official involved in the talks, that it “would have supplied less than 90 million doses” in the April-June period. That is half of the 180 million that had been committed to Brussels in the contract. But the European Commission has reduced the alarm: “Discussions about the AstraZeneca delivery program are underway. The company is refining its plan and consolidating it on the basis of all available production sites within and outside Europe.
The EU Commission looks forward to receiving an improved proposal, ‘says a spokesman for the EU executive. However, news that casts new shadows just as the EU tries by all means to accelerate immunizations against Covid-19. Thinking of “an emergency authorization at European level for vaccines”, a path already traveled by, for example, the United Kingdom, and for the moment viable in the Union only at the national level, as Hungary did with Russian Sputnik. The president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, will also bring this hypothesis to the virtual table of the summit this Thursday, to test the spirit of the leaders, who in the preparatory meetings and in the letters sent to Brussels, have broke into the need for a change in the “production, authorization and distribution” of doses. This is also a central point in the invitation letter to the summit of the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, who insists on the need to “ensure that vaccine deliveries are predictable and that pharmaceutical companies meet their commitments”. Von der Leyen will come to the discussion proposing five areas in which to focus the range of action, explained the vice president of the Community Executive, Maros Sefcovic.
They range from support for the rapid identification of variants, with standard procedures, for an accurate mapping of what is happening in each Member State, to the rapid adaptation of vaccines, also through research in a network of a hundred hospitals . This could stimulate new reflections on pre-purchase agreements with the various pharmaceutical companies, which in the not too distant future could obtain an emergency green light also at European level. To get there, regulatory work will be necessary, “a shared responsibility among the member states” and as stressed by the Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs (EU Council presidency), Ana Paula Zacarias, the security aspect must continue being the pole star. Among the points, the work carried out by the working group led by Thierry Breton in the production plants also stands out. But while a return to normalcy still seems distant, discontent among neighbors is exploding due to the too rigid measures of some states on internal borders. The European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, has sent six reminders to Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Finland, Denmark and Sweden, giving ten days for the response and the search for solutions, which avoid bottlenecks in the transport of goods and the “fragmentation of the internal market”.
In this sense, the EU Executive is working on a structural solution: an emergency tool to guarantee the free movement of goods, services and people in critical situations. Meanwhile, there are Member States, such as Greece, Malta, but also Denmark or Sweden, which insist on the use of a European vaccination certificate to travel again, especially with a view to the summer holidays. However, opinions among the 27 remain different. Michel called for work to continue “for a common approach to vaccination certificates”, but as Reynders pointed out, “immunization should never become an obligation to travel.”
Last update: February 24 at 01:46
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