COVID-19: Five EU states call for meeting to discuss 'secret delivery' of vaccines

At least five leading European Union members, on March 12, have called for a summit to discuss the clandestine delivery of COVID-19 vaccines in the bloc. The meeting was prompted by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz who accused “some” of the EU countries of inking contracts with vaccine manufacturers for “secret delivery of shots.” "There are clues that point to so-called bazaars where additional agreements between member states and pharmaceutical companies were made," Kurz alleged.  

As of now, the European Medicines Agency has approved a total of three vaccine candidates in the bloc-Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca/OxfordUniversity.  Serbia is leading the vaccination drive in the bloc followed by Malta, Norway, and Poland. In contrast, the island state of Cyprus is the country with menial inoculation.

While the vaccine rollout across the bloc has attracted flak for its slow pace, Kurz along with his four counterparts, sent a letter addressed to EU President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel claiming that "deliveries of vaccine doses by pharma companies to individual EU member states are not being implemented on an equal basis."

"If this system were to carry on, it would continue creating and exacerbating huge disparities among member states by this summer, whereby some would be able to reach herd immunity in a few weeks while others would lag far behind," the letter continued. "We, therefore, call on you... to hold a discussion on this important matter among leaders as soon as possible."

Meeting called

Following the accusation, five countries-  Czech Republic, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Latvia led by Austria have called for an EU summit to deliberate on the same. Meanwhile, the European Union has blatantly denied the accusation highlighting that it was up to member states to ask “less or more o the given” vaccine. Austria's health minister has discredited the president's claim. 

As of now, Austria has vaccinated over 981,056 people with 267,101 persons them receiving both doses. In March, the landlocked country is expecting a delivery of more than one million doses. The second quarter of 2021 should provide Austria three times the delivery volume of the first quarter.