On Tuesday, 20 April, the European Commission announced that 651,000 doses of EU-funded Covid-19 vaccine will be delivered to the Western Balkans between May and August thanks to contracts whose conclusion was facilitated by Austria, notably by making advance payment for the doses to the pharmaceutical group Pfizer.
“We will be able to deliver—very shortly, within a week or two—the first doses of, altogether, 651,000 vaccines from Pfizer, a company [that] is the most reliable partner for us. [...] [These] 651,000 vaccines [are] for the frontline workers in the healthcare sectors throughout the Western Balkans”, Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi told the press.
These vaccines come from advance purchases made by the European Commission. Austria both facilitated the legal arrangements to allow the transfer of vaccines (each transfer requires a new contract with the pharmaceutical company) and prefinanced the doses. This Member State will be reimbursed by the €70 million budget package that the European Commission adopted for this region in December 2020.
The quantity of vaccines was determined based on the needs of each country, but the commissioner could not share the distribution key used. Priority will be given to vaccinating frontline healthcare workers, but the most vulnerable population groups will also be eligible for vaccination.
“We have provided support from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic: First, with emergency medical equipment like masks, ventilators, intensive care units and ambulance vehicles; second, by strengthening the resilience. Now, we will help ensure the vaccination of all frontline medical workers across the region, as well as some of the other vulnerable groups”, Mr Várhelyi declared proudly. In his opinion, this is proof that “the European Union and its Member States do care about this region”.
These vaccines will be added to those already delivered to the Western Balkans through the COVAX Facility (Albania: 28,400 AstraZeneca vaccines on 12 March and 40,800 vaccines on 18 April; Bosnia and Herzegovina: 23,400 Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines and 26,400 AstraZeneca vaccines on 25 March; Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Kosovo: 24,000 AstraZeneca vaccines each on 28 March; and Serbia: 57,000 AstraZeneca vaccines on 2 April).
Serbia is the most vaccinated country in the Western Balkans, and the commissioner thanked the Serbian government for being the first to share vaccines with countries in the region.
The EU and its Member States’ contribution to COVAX rose to €2.47 billion last week with increased contributions from Sweden, Portugal, Liechtenstein, and the Netherlands during a fundraising event held on 15 April by GAVI (the Vaccine Alliance) and the American agency USAID. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)