EU countries have the right to acquire vaccines independently if jabs aren’t part of the bloc’s centralized procurement strategy, a European Commission spokesman said when asked about the Russian and Chinese shots.
Amid shortages of EU-approved Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines against the coronavirus, some countries in the bloc have started looking for other ways to inoculate their populations. Hungary and Slovakia have already approved Russia’s Sputnik V jab on their own, while Poland is discussing the possibility of purchasing Sinovac immunization with China.
When asked about those developments, which could be viewed as contradictory to the general EU line, European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer clarified that member countries are only banned from parallel talks with vaccine makers from a pan-European portfolio. However, they have the full right from a legal point of view to purchase vaccines from other suppliers.
Despite the European Medicines Agency (EMA) being in charge of vaccine approval in the bloc, there is also a national emergency procedure that allows jabs to be purchased without the approval of the European Commission and EMA recommendation, he said on Friday, according to TASS.
However, Mamer insisted that Brussels remained committed to its pan-European strategy of vaccine purchases, which, he argues, should guarantee access to vaccines for all EU states in order to vaccinate all EU citizens.
The spokesman again called upon the companies, which earlier agreed on deals with the EU, to do their utmost to comply with the supply contracts.
Current EU laws allow members to import unauthorised medical products for emergency use “in response to the suspected or confirmed spread of pathogenic agents, toxins, chemical agents or nuclear radiation, any of which could cause harm,” according to media reports.
Mamer’s statement came shortly after France’s European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune slammed fellow member states for showing interest in the Russian and Chinese vaccines, instead of the approved US and British jabs. He insisted that “it would pose a problem in terms of our solidarity [in the EU], and it would pose a health-risk problem” because those vaccines aren’t yet authorized by the EMA.
Europe’s medicines regulator announced on Thursday that it had started a rolling review of the Sputnik V vaccine. However, EU officials insisted that the approval by the EMA wouldn’t necessarily mean that that the Russian jab, which boasts an efficacy rate of over 91 percent, will be included in the bloc’s portfolio.
Like this story? Share it with a friend!
EU countries have the right to acquire vaccines independently if jabs aren’t part of the bloc’s centralized procurement strategy, a European Commission spokesman said when asked about the Russian and Chinese shots. Read Full Article at RT.com Read More
Guest Post by Martin Armstrong A lot of people have written in about the Capitol siege. This was clearly orchestrated in advance to achieve three objectives. To stop any demand to investigate the election To further the Domestic Terrorist Act To justify creating a wall around the Capitol to protect them while imposing the Great […]
The US has lost the war in Afghanistan not when it decided to withdraw as the Taliban regained power, but years ago, when it bombed Afghan homes in the name of fighting terror, ex-president Hamid Karzai told RT’s Oksana Boyko. The invasion of the US-led coalition in Afghanistan back in 2001, after the tragedy of […]
Chancellor Scholz reportedly overruled the plan to avoid angering President Putin. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected a push to nationalize Gazprom Germania to prevent a threat to energy security. The German government is reportedly planning to provide a loan of €10 billion ($10.4 billion) to rescue the local unit of Russia’s state-owned energy giant […]
