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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed that countries will have to work quickly to fine-tune their health systems and borders if they want to have a working “health passport” during the summer.
“Member States will have to act quickly with implementation if we want to have that certificate by the summer. In addition to agreeing on principles and technology, rapid cross-border development and health systems must be ensured, ”said Ursula von der Leyen, after the summit of European leaders in which the implementation of this instrument was discussed.
Greece with more intensity, and Spain more calmly, managed to pressure the rest of the southern countries (Italy, Cyprus and Malta) to advance in the creation of the document. Pressures from Athens intensified after Boris Johnson said last Monday that he hoped to end restrictions in the UK in June.
With an agreement already closed on the data that this “health passport” must contain (what vaccine was applied, identification code and “minimal” personal data), a decision is now pending on whether this digital certificate will include information on whether you recently obtained a negative result in a PCR test or if you have already passed the Covid-19 and, therefore, with generated antibodies.The proposal to create the “health passport” is generating doubts in France and Germany, who consider that it is still too early to give a signal that Europe can think about returning to normality immediately.
Macron and Merkel say that “the epidemiological situation remains serious and the new variants bring new challenges.”
“Non-essential travel should be restricted, but measures should be proportionate,” stressed the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
More cautiously, Von der Leyen, warns against “expectations too high too early” and specified that this proposal requires “at least three months of technical development” to achieve a system that works throughout the European Union.
TO The president of the Commission also warned that there are still several open questions, how to know exactly what this type of document will be used for or if vaccinated people can continue to transmit the virus despite not developing the disease.
“These concerns will disappear as the vaccination taxa progresses”, according to Von der Leye, who said that the given “promising” wines from Israel suggested that the people who received two doses of the Pzifer-BioNTech vaccine did not transmit viruses to others.
Regarding the decision on what the people who obtain this certificate can do, the president stressed that “it must be decided in each country”, although at a European level it is favorable to its use to “guarantee the full functioning of the single market.”
In this sense, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, warned about “legitimate concerns about the risk of discrimination”, that is, that the certificate gives vaccinated people rights that those who have not received immunization do not have.
“This generates a debate that must be taken into account, but until March we expect some progress on this issue,” he added.
El País, which cites sources from the Palácio da Moncloa, assures that the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, defended the “health passport” as a “valid and useful tool and defended the continuity of the design work in the community level to” avoid that each country develops its own, preventing unfair situations and ensuring the protection of personal data ”.
Pressure on pharmaceutical companies
The European Union wants to avoid at all costs having to face an escalation of infections after the violent winter wave. And given the difficulties presented by the pharmaceutical industry, and in particular AstraZeneca, to intensify the production rates of the vaccine against Covid-19.
At the summit, European leaders complained that there is an urgent need to speed up production, authorization and distribution. In addition, they urged companies to respect the contractual delivery deadlines signed with Brussels.
“Our top priority now is to accelerate the production and supply of vaccines and vaccination across the European Union, so we support the Commission’s efforts to work with industry. […] And we want greater predictability and transparency to ensure that pharmaceutical companies meet their commitments, ”said Charles Michel, at a press conference in Brussels, at the end of the video conference of European leaders.
The President of the European Council recalled that “the current situation is difficult, there is very strong pressure on all Member States and very high expectations from citizens to rediscover the ability to live in an open society”, but warned that everyone is aware that “The next few weeks will continue to be difficult in terms of vaccination.”
Even so, Charles Michel believes that there are signs of hope and optimism: “We have the means, the resources and the capacity to ensure, in the coming months, that the EU plays a key role, not only in Europe, but also in international terms. “.
The epidemiological situation remains serious
In the conclusions adopted by the EU leaders, all 27 assume that “the epidemiological situation remains serious and the new variants pose additional challenges”, so it is necessary “to maintain strict restrictions while intensifying efforts to accelerate the supply of vaccines.”
“Vaccination is already underway in all Member States and, thanks to our vaccination strategy, everyone has access to vaccines. Despite this, we must urgently accelerate the authorization, production and distribution of vaccines, as well as vaccination. We also need to strengthen our surveillance and detection capacity to identify the variants as soon as possible, in order to control their spread ”, read the conclusions adopted.
The European Council then says it supports “further efforts by the Commission to work with industry and Member States to increase current vaccine production capacity, as well as to adapt vaccines to new variants as needed.”
“We also support the efforts that the Commission has been making to accelerate the availability of raw materials, facilitate agreements between manufacturers in all supply chains, examine existing facilities to help increase production in the EU, and strengthen research efforts and development ”, add the leaders. .
The 27 also reaffirm their “solidarity with third countries” and claim to be “committed to improving access of priority groups to vaccines”, in neighboring countries and beyond.
A long way to go
Data from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), in just two months, the two doses of the vaccine were administered to 2.5 percent of the European population.
To immunize the most vulnerable citizens, the European Union still has a long way to go, as so far only 10.5 percent of people over 80 have received both doses of the vaccine.
With these figures, each delay in the delivery of vaccines is a blow to decongest European health systems.
The new delays of Moderna and AstraZeneca put the 27 on alert, although they still hope to reach cruising speed from the second quarter of the year, when the delivery of 380 million doses from the pharmacist Janssen is expected.
The 27 also fear that the appearance of a new variant will reduce the effectiveness of vaccines.
European leaders also complained about delivery delays that sparked a war between Brussels and British drugmaker AstraZeneca.
“Companies must guarantee the predictability of their vaccine production and respect their delivery deadlines,” he defended on 27, who asked Brussels to be stricter with the ban on the export of vaccines in case the companies do not comply with their commitments .
with agencies
