EU countries must purchase COVID-19 vaccines only through joint negotiations, plus the bloc has enough vaccines as it is, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said Friday, when asked about the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine.
On Tuesday, the Kremlin said that Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Vladimir Putin had a call, discussing cooperation in the fight against the pandemic with an emphasis on possible prospects of joint vaccine production.
"The only framework we are negotiating in is as 27, we do this together, and no member state on this legal binding basis is allowed to negotiate in parallel or to have a contract in parallel ... With the portfolio we have right now, as I have said, the whole portfolio covers 2.3 billion doses of vaccine, so this is more than enough to vaccinate the whole European population," von der Leyen said at a briefing.
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The European Commission’s president has warned EU member countries against ordering Covid-19 vaccines in side deals, saying it undermines the bloc’s own efforts to tackle the virus.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking on Friday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU had ordered more than enough doses for everyone in the EU, as Brussels announced its purchase of another 300 million doses of the Pfizer jab.
Von der Leyen took the opportunity to warn member states against making their own side deals with vaccine producers.
“The only framework we are negotiating in is as 27. We do this together, and no member state on this legal binding basis is allowed to negotiate in parallel or to have a contract in parallel,” von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels.