The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, defended the European Union’s vaccination strategy to combat the Covid-19 pandemic on Wednesday 10 February before MEPs, with a good dose of conviction, a hint of mea culpa, and new announcements to make up for the weaknesses that have been identified.
As had been suggested to her, Mrs von der Leyen began by emphasising vaccination figures, rather than the number of contracts signed and the number of doses secured. Since December, she said, “17 million” people have been vaccinated in the EU. She highlighted three examples to demonstrate that the EU vaccine strategy is delivering results: - in Poland, 94% of the medical staff and 80% of the residents of retirement homes have been vaccinated; - in Denmark, 93% of the residents of retirement homes; - in Italy, 4% of the total population.
The exercise would have achieved its objective if the President of the Commission had not left the hemicycle several times to talk to the German and Austrian press. Since the beginning of her mandate, the former German Defence Minister, who appears very rarely in the Commission’s press room, has been accused of speaking mainly to the media in her country.
Mistakes were made
During the 4-hour exchange of views, the President of the Commission and the European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, recalled that European solidarity is the only way forward. With the support of many political groups in the European Parliament, they reaffirmed their conviction that it was useful to have given the European Commission a mandate to negotiate with the manufacturers of Covid-19 vaccines on behalf of the Member States.
However, Ursula von der Leyen acknowledged some pitfalls. “It is a fact: today we are not where we would have liked to be in the fight against the virus. We have been too slow in the authorisation procedure, too optimistic about mass production. And perhaps we were too confident that our orders would be delivered on time”, she conceded. She added: “Rightly so, we were all very focused on the development of the vaccine. But, overall, we underestimated the difficulty of mass production”.
In the face of accusations that the Commission has been dragging out negotiations with pharmaceutical companies to obtain better prices, Stella Kyriakides stressed the global nature of the approach being pursued. “We acted as fast as we could with and on behalf of the EU27. It was never only about prices. It was about ensuring access to safe and effective vaccines, obtaining strong provisions on liability, acting in accordance with safety procedures”, the Commissioner said.
Some calls for resignation
While they were critical, most MEPs acknowledged the European Commission’s work. Only the Identity and Democracy group and a few MEPs from the ECR group, including the Netherlands’ Derk Jan Eppink, called for Ursula von der Leyen’s resignation.
Among The Left, Frenchwoman Manon Aubry has called for a board of inquiry into the Commission’s responsibility in the current “disaster”. “The managers of ‘Big Pharma’ have made the law in your stead, Mrs von der Leyen!” she said, calling for the following trio: “public money, public contracts and patents in the public domain”.
The EPP group, for its part, made its point by encouraging the European Commission to consider a ban on exports to non-Member States (rather than only its transparency mechanism - see EUROPE 12647/2). “We must not be naïve: a ban on exports of vaccines produced in Europe must be considered as an option and remain on the table”, said its president, Germany’s Manfred Weber.
In addition, several MEPs have tempered the European Commission’s vaccination targets. Zbigniew Kuźmiuk (ECR, Poland) has estimated that the target of 70% of the adult population will probably turn into a result of 15% (see EUROPE 12639/1). Finnish Social Democrat Eero Heinäluoma insisted that his country had received half as many doses as expected, while Dita Charanzová (Renew Europe, Czech Republic) said that Moderna had delivered half as many doses to his country and with a week’s delay.
A fourth contract accessible in the reading room
Playing the appeasement card, Mrs von der Leyen said she had drawn the first lessons from the pandemic. After launching a working group on improving production chains last week, she announced the setting up of a “new European clinical trials network” to speed up data sharing with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) (see EUROPE 12651/1). She also recalled that the Commission will launch its pilot bio-defence programme in the framework of the future EU Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) next week (see EUROPE 12644/1).
She also reaffirmed her commitment to make public all contracts concluded with industry, once again suggesting that the final decision rests with the companies. According to Kyriakides, the contract with Johnson & Johnson will be available to MEPs in the reading room from this Thursday (see EUROPE 12654/17).
Finally, a contact group between the European Parliament and the Commission will be set up to improve contacts between the two institutions on the monitoring of the fight against Covid-19. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)