Britain warns the bloc not to adhere to contracts

The European Union stops donating "Corona vaccines" to poor countries

People sitting in a waiting area after receiving the Corona vaccine in Ireland.

A.F.B.

The European Union has stopped donating vaccines against the emerging coronavirus (Covid-19) to poor countries, while Britain has warned the European Union not to adhere to the vaccine contracts.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the mechanism that allows the European Union to share vaccines directly with other countries will not start work until there is a better production situation in the European Union.

She added, in statements to the German media group Funke, that the European Union is currently not in a position to donate Corona virus vaccines to the poorest countries, adding, "There is pressure on member states to obtain vaccines for themselves."

However, von der Leyen highlighted European financial support for the "Kovacs" initiative, which was launched by the World Health Organization to give vaccines to the poorest countries.

"The European Union has invested 2.2 billion euros (2.6 billion dollars) in this initiative," she said.

Kovacs has already provided 30 million doses of the vaccine to 52 countries.

In addition, the British Defense Secretary, Ben Wallace, warned the European Union not to abide by contracts for Corona vaccines, demanding that these contracts be respected even with slow vaccination, which puts pressure on governments in the bloc, and added in televised statements: “The European Commission knows within it that This will backfire. They are under tremendous political pressure in the European Commission.

This would harm the European Union's relations at the global level if these decades were to be pushed back.

And Bloomberg News reported that the United Kingdom has reached a milestone of vaccinating half of its adult population, while less than 10% of the population in the European Union has received at least one dose.

The European Union Financial Services Commissioner, Mered McGuinness, said that no decisions have been taken on the issue of stopping vaccine imports into the United Kingdom, and that the priority of the European Union is to address the concerns of its citizens, adding: “Both the European Union and the United Kingdom have contracts with AstraZeneca, what My understanding is that the company supplies the United Kingdom, but not the European Union. ”

Wallace also used a cautious tone about the possibility that Britons could go on vacation abroad this summer, saying the UK government was afraid to import new strains of the coronavirus.

He also noted the high incidence of the virus in some European countries.

In addition, a European spokesman announced that the European Union summit, which will be held next Thursday and Friday, in Brussels, will be conducted by video link.

A spokesman for the President of the European Council, Barend Letts, said in a tweet on the social networking site "Twitter" that Council President Charles Michel took this decision following the increase in Coronavirus infections in member states.

The summit will touch on several sensitive topics, including the deterioration of relations with Russia and Turkey, and chaos in the European Union's response to the epidemic crisis.

European diplomats reported that last week, European leaders called on Michel to cancel personal attendance at the summit, while the President of the European Council hoped to be able to avoid resorting to video service again by strengthening health measures.

European leaders have rarely met face to face since the start of the epidemic, especially at a four-day prolonged summit last July to ratify an economic recovery plan worth 750 billion euros for the European Union countries.

In Germany, the weekly Coronavirus infection rate has exceeded a dangerous level, which is a factor in the government’s determination of whether to re-impose stricter lockdown measures.

The Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases Control said yesterday that the number of new infections per 100,000 people of the entire German population over the past week rose to 103.9 cases.

Often, exceeding the number 100 means that the rules for combating the Corona virus that have been relaxed at the local level are re-tightened. For example, last Friday, the authorities in Hamburg canceled the easing of measures to contain the Corona epidemic, after the infection rate rose for seven days from 100. It is now subject to a tougher lockdown.

In India, the Ministry of Health announced, yesterday, that 43,846 cases of Coronavirus had been recorded within 24 hours.

This is the highest daily death toll recorded by India during this year, bringing the total number of virus cases in India to 11 million and 599 thousand and 130 cases since the outbreak of the epidemic.

And the Indian Ministry of Health indicated that 197 new deaths were recorded with the virus, bringing the total deaths to 159,755.

• The next summit of the European Union will be held via video link, due to the increasing spread of "Corona".

• India records the highest daily death toll from Coronavirus this year.

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