The Health Ministers of four Member States – Bulgaria, Poland, Lithuania and Hungary - issued a joint statement on behalf of their countries on Tuesday 14 March on the joint European procurement of Comirnaty vaccines against Covid-19, developed by the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech.
On 14 March, at the Health Ministers’ meeting in Brussels, the four States agreed that they were facing oversupply of vaccines and that the costs of these supplies were affecting their budgets. They fear that they will have to destroy vaccine doses.
The signatories found some of the solutions proposed in a potential fifth amendment to the Covid-19 vaccine purchase agreement with Pfizer “unacceptable”.
The signatories called on the European Commission to renegotiate “a fairer deal”. They want supplies to be suspended until a solution is found.
The signatories demanded that the Commission negotiate a reduction in the number of doses contracted or acquire surplus vaccines from these Member States “for donation to regions in need”.
The four States opposed the proposed flexibility fees. For the four signatories, these costs constitute a disproportionate financial burden and raise legal problems. They want to pay for the vaccines only after delivery and refuse to pay compensation for non-delivery.
The four signatories also asked Pfizer to work “in good faith” for a just solution “for the common good and not just for economic interests”.
At the end of the EU Council meeting, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides stressed that Ministers had held an in-depth discussion on the state of play of Covid-19 vaccination and on negotiations to better match vaccine demand and supply with Member States’ needs.
The Commissioner assured the Ministers that she understood their concerns, but that it was important to continue to work together and through the steering board established with the joint negotiating team to find common solutions that would benefit all Member States.
An EU source points out that the Member States, including the four signatories, have been involved in the negotiation stages of the contract through this steering board.
According to figures from the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the four signatory States are below the European average rate of Covid-19 vaccine administration for the first and booster vaccination regimens.
Link to the joint note: https://aeur.eu/f/5te (Émilie Vanderhulst)