Covid-19: vaccine management, a source of tension in Europe
Flags of the European Union and the States in front of the European Parliament building © AFP
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3 min
Tensions are building up around vaccines in Europe and we are reaching a point where European solidarity is starting to crack.
This is particularly the case with the statements of Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz who denounces a big mess in the distribution of doses between the countries of the EU, some have much more than others according to him.
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With our correspondent in Brussels,
Pierre Benazet
Sebastian Kurz criticizes two things.
First there are criticisms and then accusations.
His basic criticism is that vaccine deliveries do not match what the European Union had promised.
This approach clearly contradicts the political goal of the European Union - the equal distribution of vaccine doses to all member states.
- Sebastian Kurz (@sebastiankurz) March 12, 2021
According to the Austrian Chancellor, the vaccine doses are not at all distributed in proportion to the population.
And he also accuses, without naming them, certain capitals of going to secretly negotiate contracts with laboratories, apart from the prior purchase agreement signed with laboratories by the European Commission.
The European Commission recalls that when a European prior purchase agreement is signed with a laboratory - there are currently six - it can no longer conclude any other separate agreement with an EU country.
With the other laboratories, no problem, we can very well conclude an agreement with Chinese or Russian producers for example.
On the other hand, Sebastian Kurz's criticism of the bazaar or carpet merchant negotiation aspect of the distribution is not unfounded, even if it is deemed incomprehensible here.
This is the operation that the Europeans have chosen with full knowledge of the facts within what is called the “steering committee”.
Once a stock of vaccines is available, each member state must decide, that is to say, announce to the others whether or not it will buy the doses to which it is entitled in proportion to its population.
Sometimes a country does not take all of what is allocated to it, depending on whether or not it is able to deliver the vaccines.
Another country can then ask to buy more than what is planned
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European Union
Vaccines
Coronavirus
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