VIENNA (Reuters) – The European Commission on Saturday defended its policy of uniform distribution of COVID-19 vaccines en bloc after Austria and five other member states complained that doses were not allocated equally.
In a joint letter to the Commission and the European Council, the leaders of six European countries, including the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Latvia and later Croatia, called for talks on the distribution of vaccines.
The Commission replied that the doses were distributed in proportion to the population of each country and taking into account epidemiological data, adding that it is up to the Member States to decide how to distribute them.
A flexible policy agreed by EU governments has meant that countries facing a more acute phase of the epidemic could access more doses if some governments choose not to take their proportional allocation, the EU executive said in a statement. -a statement.
“It would be up to the Member States to find an agreement if they want to return to the proportional basis,” he said, adding that he supports an allocation method based exclusively on a proportion of the population of each EU nation.
The Commission has been criticized for the slow release of block vaccines, although EU governments play a leading role in purchasing vaccines and vaccination plans.
On Friday, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said vaccine doses were not evenly distributed among member states, despite an agreement within the bloc to do so on a population-by-population basis. He accused, without providing evidence, separate agreements between the EU vaccination board and drug companies.
The letter from Kurz and his counterparts to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel called for a “European solution”.
“In recent days … we have found that … deliveries of vaccine doses by pharmaceutical companies to individual EU Member States are not implemented equally, following the proportional key of the population,” the letter read in the Austrian press.
“We therefore invite you, Charles, to have a discussion on this important issue between leaders as soon as possible.”
Malta is on track to have three times as many vaccine doses as its population by the end of June than Bulgaria, Kurz said.
The letter did not mention the steering group, which is the body that negotiates vaccination agreements with companies on behalf of EU states. The deputy head of the steering committee is Austrian.
Opposition parties have accused Kurz of trying to blame himself for the slow pace of vaccinations. The Social Democrats said he was looking for “scapegoats for his failure.”
An EU official said Michel had received the letter, and a leaders’ summit was already scheduled for March 25 and 26.
“The coordination of COVID will be addressed again by the 27 members during that meeting,” the official said, without specifying whether it includes the distribution of the vaccine.
Michel’s office declined to comment.
Reporting by Francois Murphy; Additional reporting by Francesco Guarascio in Brussels, edited by Alexandra Hudson and Clelia Oziel