The Heads of State and Government will again discuss the Covid-19 pandemic at their European Council on 10 December.
Contrary to the last two informal videoconferences explicitly devoted to this subject, it remains difficult for Member States not to address the health situation, while the festive season is raising fears of a third wave of contamination.
At this stage, all eyes are on the European Medicines Agency, which is due to deliver its opinion on the safety of the candidate vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which have submitted applications for conditional market authorisation (see EUROPE 12613/28).
According to the draft European Council conclusions seen by EUROPE, the Heads of State will stress “the importance of preparations for the timely deployment and distribution of vaccines, including the development of national immunisation strategies”.
For the rest, they will invite the Commission, following its October recommendation, to present a proposal for an “EU Council Recommendation” on a common framework for rapid antigenic tests and for the mutual recognition of test results (see EUROPE 12604/4).
So far, 31 countries, including 26 EU Member States, are involved in the joint procurement launched by the European Commission for antigenic tests, according to the minutes of the mid-November meeting of the Health Security Committee.
The draft conclusions also indicate that a “coordinated approach to vaccination certificates” should also be developed. At the beginning of December, the European branch of the World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that it was considering the introduction of an electronic vaccination certificate.
However, it cannot be ruled out that the subject of ski holidays will come up during the EU-27’s discussions. While France, Italy, Germany and, to a lesser extent, Austria want to keep the resorts closed until January, Spain, Finland, and Switzerland - which is not a Member State but part of the Schengen area - are not taking the same approach.
“We must continue our efforts to coordinate testing and the lifting of restrictions, including travel restrictions, where the epidemiological situation permits”, said President Charles Michel in his letter of invitation. To read the draft conclusions: https://bit.ly/2VMnV9l (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)