The European Fee has refused to touch upon whether or not Germany has breached EU agreements by securing extra vaccine doses for its personal residents underneath a bilateral settlement.
German well being minister Jens Spahn mentioned earlier this week that his nation had signed a memorandum of understanding with BioNTech final September for 30 million extra vaccine doses – a call which appears to place in danger the precept of solidarity between European international locations.
In his assertion, he revealed that the German deal was sealed two months earlier than the EU fee finalised the EU-wide contracts with the Pfizer and BioNTech in November, in what seems to be additionally in a breach of EU agreements which prohibit member states from negotiating separate offers.
“The one framework we’re negotiating in is as 27. We do that collectively, and no member state on this legal-binding foundation is allowed to barter in parallel or to have a contract in parallel,” the president of the EU government, Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen, instructed reporters on Friday (8 January).
Nonetheless, fee chief spokesperson Eric Mamer refused to make clear whether or not the German bilateral deal was respectable underneath the EU guidelines.
“I discover by some means shocking that in a context of a well being disaster, [while] the European Fee is specializing in delivering the doses of vaccines that are crucial for the European inhabitants, the questioning is about whether or not at a really preliminary stage of the negotiation procedures ‘t’s have been crossed and that i’s have been dotted’,” Mamer mentioned on Friday, with out offering additional particulars.
The fee spokesman beforehand mentioned, on Wednesday, that he had no data on Germany’s deal, arguing that these 30 million vaccine doses Berlin negotiated can be most likely a part of the doses the EU has already secured with Pfizer and BioNTech.
Regardless of negotiating collectively underneath an EU umbrella, it’s as much as member states to purchase the vaccine doses from the businesses and agree on the precise deliveries.
The EU government secured on Friday an extra 200 million doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, with the choice of an additional 100 million – in a bid to counter rising criticism from member states concerning the gradual roll-out of vaccines.
In complete, there at the moment are 600 million doses of this vaccine out there to member states. There are roughly 450 million EU residents.
Pfizer beforehand mentioned it might solely produce as much as 1.3 billion doses this 12 months, Reuters reported.
The fee, on behalf of member states, has sealed offers with Moderna, AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, BioNTech/Pfizer and CureVac for as much as 2.3 billion vaccine doses.
At present, BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are the one jabs authorised within the EU.
In the meantime, some EU international locations, corresponding to France and Belgium, have come underneath fireplace for his or her gradual vaccine rollout programmes.
Von der Leyen additionally mentioned the “starting is all the time troublesome,” urging member states to “elevate the numbers of vaccinations quickly”.
EU leaders will talk about the vaccine roll-out in a videoconference scheduled later this month (21 January).