Saturday

3rd Jun 2023

Commission silent as Germany buys own vaccines

  • Currently, BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are the only jabs authorised in the EU (Photo: Nathan Forget)

The European Commission has refused to comment on whether Germany has breached EU agreements by securing additional vaccine doses for its own citizens under a bilateral agreement.

German health minister Jens Spahn said earlier this week that his country had signed a memorandum of understanding with BioNTech last September for 30 million additional vaccine doses - a decision which seems to put at risk the principle of solidarity between European countries.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

In his statement, he revealed that the German deal was sealed two months before the EU commission finalised the EU-wide contracts with the Pfizer and BioNTech in November, in what appears to be also in a breach of EU agreements which prohibit member states from negotiating separate deals.

"The only framework we are negotiating in is as 27. We do this together, and no member state on this legal-binding basis is allowed to negotiate in parallel or to have a contract in parallel," the president of the EU executive, Germany's Ursula von der Leyen, told reporters on Friday (8 January).

However, commission chief spokesperson Eric Mamer refused to clarify whether the German bilateral deal was legitimate under the EU rules.

"I find somehow surprising that in a context of a health crisis, [while] the European Commission is focusing on delivering the doses of vaccines which are necessary for the European population, the questioning is about whether at a very initial stage of the negotiation procedures 't's were crossed and i's were dotted'," Mamer said on Friday, without providing further details.

The commission spokesman previously said, on Wednesday, that he had no information on Germany's deal, arguing that those 30 million vaccine doses Berlin negotiated would be probably part of the doses the EU has already secured with Pfizer and BioNTech.

Despite negotiating together under an EU umbrella, it is up to member states to buy the vaccine doses from the companies and agree on the exact deliveries.

The EU executive secured on Friday an additional 200 million doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, with the option of an extra 100 million - in a bid to counter growing criticism from member states about the slow roll-out of vaccines.

In total, there are now 600 million doses of this vaccine available to member states. There are approximately 450 million EU citizens.

Pfizer previously said it could only produce up to 1.3 billion doses this year, Reuters reported.

The commission, on behalf of member states, has sealed deals with Moderna, AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, BioNTech/Pfizer and CureVac for up to 2.3 billion vaccine doses.

Currently, BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are the only jabs authorised in the EU.

Meanwhile, some EU countries, such as France and Belgium, have come under fire for their slow vaccine rollout programmes.

Von der Leyen also said the "beginning is always difficult," urging member states to "raise the numbers of vaccinations rapidly".

EU leaders will discuss the vaccine roll-out in a videoconference scheduled later this month (21 January).

EU agency authorises Moderna vaccine amid blame-game

The European Medicines Agency has authorised the use of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by US company Moderna - while the EU is involved in a blame-game over a sluggish vaccine rollout across member states.

EU leaders to discuss vaccine roll-out this month

EU leaders regularly held video-conferences to coordinate the pandemic reaction last year, but countries and EU institutions recently began a blame-game over the sluggish roll-out of vaccines.

EU faces long wait for full vaccine supplies

The EU is still several months away from having enough vaccines to inoculate its 450 million people, with Pfizer and BioNTech, its principle suppliers, aiming for September for delivery targets.

Opinion

Together Europe can beat pandemics, Alzheimer's, cancer

Let's expand the EU with a Health Union where cutting edge research and world-class applications go hand in hand. For this, it is worth being European, believing in Europe, working on Europe, writes European People's Party leader Manfred Weber MEP.

'Difficult weeks' ahead as EU deaths and infections soar

National authorities have warned citizens about "difficult" weeks ahead, as more than a quarter of EU countries are seeing strained health systems - amid a blame-game over the slow rollout of the vaccine in some member states.

Column

What a Spanish novelist can teach us about communality

In a world where cultural clashes and sectarianism seems to be on the increase, Spanish novelist Javier Cercas (b.1962) takes the opposite approach. He cherishes both life in the big city and in the countryside.

Latest News

  1. Spanish PM to delay EU presidency speech due to snap election
  2. EU data protection chief launches Frontex investigation
  3. Madrid steps up bid to host EU anti-money laundering hub
  4. How EU leaders should deal with Chinese government repression
  5. MEPs pile on pressure for EU to delay Hungary's presidency
  6. IEA: World 'comfortably' on track for renewables target
  7. Europe's TV union wooing Lavrov for splashy interview
  8. ECB: eurozone home prices could see 'disorderly' fall

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  2. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us