The Covid-19 pandemic will once again be on the agenda of EU leaders on Thursday 25 March, as outbreaks in many Member States increase, variants of the coronavirus spread and doses of the vaccine from AstraZeneca encounter difficulties in reaching Europe.
The EU27 will discuss the production, delivery and deployment of Covid-19 vaccines. They will also discuss the mechanism for authorising exports of vaccines outside the EU (see EUROPE 12685/7), digital green certificates (see EUROPE 12685/2) and the Covax Facility to facilitate the deployment of vaccines in vulnerable third countries.
“ The situation remains alarming in many Member States. We are beginning to see circumstances that give us cause for concern, with an increase in cases in 19 countries. Fifteen countries are reporting more hospital admissions and admissions to intensive care and eight Member States are reporting an increase in deaths”, said health commissioner Stella Kyriakides on the eve of the summit.
This deterioration in the situation led the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, to organise the meeting once again by videoconference.
Vaccination update
The Heads of State or Government will take stock, in the presence of Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, of vaccine deliveries, in particular AstraZeneca’s failure to meet its commitments.
The fact that 29 million doses were discovered in a factory in Anagni (Italy) during an inspection by the Italian police should not calm European decision-makers.
However, “our anger should not outweigh the priority of completing vaccination”, noted one EU source.
EU leaders could also discuss the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, after Germany invited them to hold preparatory talks on a possible joint purchase. The risk, however, noted another European source, is that the vaccine may arrive too late, by the time it is produced.
Finally, the question of the mechanism for allocating doses between Member States could also be addressed, if the subject is not completed by the Steering Committee. But according to several diplomats, the summit is not the right place to decide this issue.
As a reminder, “6 or 7 Member States” want to introduce a correction mechanism to the distribution system based on the European population, believing that they have been harmed by it.
Accelerated procedures for the adaptation of licenced vaccines
On Wednesday, the Commission presented a delegated regulation to speed up the authorisation of variant-adapted Covid-19 vaccines.
The regulation should allow companies to focus on gathering the necessary evidence in a timely manner and make it possible to authorise vaccines that have been adapted on the basis of a smaller set of additional data submitted to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the Commission argues.
This regulation, which amends regulation 1234/2008, was presented in the framework of the HERA incubator, the new European biodefence preparedness plan against SARS-CoV-2 variants.
See the draft implementing regulation: https://bit.ly/2QsRz48
Exports
Leaders are also expected to discuss the export licensing mechanism for Covid-19 vaccines, in the wake of the Commission’s publication of a revised mechanism with broader application to take account of reciprocity and proportionality criteria (see other news).
According to a European diplomat, the discussions will not go into detail about the mechanism. Leaders “will express an initial orientation; some will say that it is very good; others will say that it is complex in view of the supply chains, in particular” noted a diplomat.
France and Germany have already publicly supported the Commission’s initiative. Some Member States, such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, are more reserved about the mechanism. The Netherlands is particularly concerned that restricting trade will inevitably lead to a losing solution for all sides.
Finally, the leaders will again discuss the European vaccine sharing mechanism to be rapidly put in place to complement and support the Covax initiative to ensure universal access to vaccines.
Link to the draft conclusions of the European Council of 15 March: http://bit.ly/3vywOE9 (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean, Léa Marchal and Aminata Niang, with editorial staff)