MEPs call for more transparency on anti-Covid vaccine contracts
The European flag flies at the entrance of the European Parliament in Brussels where we debate this Tuesday, January 19 about the lack of transparency on the contracts of vaccines against the Covid.
kenzo tribouillard / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
During a debate this Tuesday morning in the European Parliament in Brussels, MEPs called for more transparency on the contracts for vaccination against Covid which were signed by the European Commission with six pharmaceutical companies.
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With our correspondent in Brussels,
Joana Hostein
To put an end to the controversies, to the false information surrounding the European Union's vaccine strategy, we need more transparency on the
price of vaccines
, on the margins of pharmaceutical companies and on legal liability in the event of side effects, insists Pascal Canfin, French MEP from the Renew Europe group, who was able to consult the contract signed with the German company Curevac.
“
Out of six paragraphs on legal liability, - who is responsible in the event of a problem
?
- out of six paragraphs, two are not eligible, they are crossed out.
How do you want, as representatives of Europeans, to be satisfied with this partial transparency
?
"
►
See also: Anti-Covid-19 vaccines: MEP P. Canfin points to the lack of transparency of contracts
MEPs also denounce the conditions under which the documents were able to be consulted, like Marc Botenga, Belgian MEP from the European Unitary Left (GUE) group.
“
Frankly what a circus!
Phone confiscated, privacy statement ... In front of the pharmaceutical lobbies you make the carpet.
However, the vaccine is not primarily thanks to them.
It is public funds which have paid for research and development, which have paid for production capacity, which will pay, who knows, in the event of a hidden defect.
"
In its response, the European Commission recalled that it could not decide on its own to lift the veil on contracts, that it was up to the laboratories to give the green light.
►
Read also: Covid-19: the European Commission doubles its orders for the vaccine from Pfizer / BioNTech
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