The EU Council summit dedicated to the Covid emergency and the examination of vaccination campaigns in Europe has begun. But right from the start, the positions of the leaders promise to be distant and, according to the first rumors collected by the Ansa agency, on the crucial point of the redistribution of vaccine doses, the positions of the governments are still distant and it will take more time to decide which method to adopt . So much so that a solution will hardly be found during the summit.
Until now, the EU Commission has always insisted on the allocation of doses in proportion to the population, but the States have abandoned the pro-rata strategy and now they have to come to an agreement. The crux, explain the sources consulted by ANSA, is to define the threshold for one balanced redistribution of doses that some countries did not want to buy. The work of the first day will be largely dedicated to the topic of vaccines. In the evening the intervention of the US president Joe Biden.
The alarm remains high and the draft conclusions of the summit observe that “Accelerated production, delivery and deployment of vaccines remains essential to overcome the crisis. Efforts to this end need to be further intensified. We stress the importance of transparency and extension of the export licensing regime. We reaffirm that companies must ensure the predictability of their vaccine production and meet contractual delivery deadlines.
Leaders recommend maintaining travel restrictions and point out that the time has not yet come to let down the guard. For this reason, the draft indeed recommends that “The legislative and technical work on Covid interoperable digital certificates on the basis of the proposal of the EU Commission, to return to travel, in the future, when the epidemiological conditions of Covid allow it, "should be carried out urgently". Basically a confirmation of the greenpass to travel but not all countries seem to agree on this either.
Finally, the tug of war with AstraZeneca continues. EU sources let it filter that the European Commission is determined to continue on the path of legal litigation against AstraZeneca if it does not obtain satisfactory results on compliance with the contract for the delivery of doses of the anti-Covid vaccine.
“We don't want to win a lawsuit by winning it, but to get more doses,” especially for the second quarter, about which there is concern. According to Brussels there is still "a big gap" on the agreed doses, as well as "confusion about which batches go to whom".
