Ursula von der Leyen: Underestimated the industry's difficulties

Is it time to buy vaccines outside the EU?

The Member States that have already answered yes to this question are Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland.

They have even bought vaccines that are not approved in the EU for their populations - the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine and the Russian vaccine Sputnik 5. Only three vaccines have been approved in the EU so far: Modernas, Pfizer-Biontechs and Astra Zenecas.  

Germany has gone beyond the common strategy in the EU and signed agreements on its own vaccine deliveries from Pfizer.

It became widely known in early January, but the deal had already been made in September.

The European Commission has maintained that the best thing for the whole EU is to negotiate together, but the Commission has not criticized Germany for the deal.

And now other EU countries want to follow Germany's example.

Denmark wants to learn from Israel

Today, Denmark's City Minister Mette Fredriksen and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz travel to Israel to try to speed up the vaccination of each country's residents.

Ursula von der Leyen does not criticize Denmark's and Austria's visits to Israel. 

-As I see it, it is also a journey to learn from a good example.

Israel does not have its own production facilities, as does Denmark.

So if the lesson is to invest in production, it is very good.

It is a common European strategy. 

At the same time, work is underway in the EU to accelerate the production of vaccines: 

-Now we work closely with the industry and ask ourselves what we can do to increase production.

Do we have distribution chains, do we have the raw materials, can we speed up any process?

Says Ursula von der Leyen to SVT.

Can secure vaccines outside the EU

A collaboration between Denmark and Israel could, for example, mean building factories together, as a way of trying to speed up the manufacturing process, according to an earlier statement from Fredriksen.  

In Sweden, a majority of the members of the Riksdag's Social Affairs Committee believe that Sweden should try to secure vaccines on its own, ie also outside the EU's joint procurement.

The Social Affairs Committee has received initiatives from M and V, which were discussed on Thursday and which will be taken up again after further preparation.