BERLIN. Once upon a time there was the “bazaar”. Two weeks ago Sebastian Kurz made heavy accusations against the EU. Vaccines, he thunders, are not distributed in Europe based on population, but according to “secret agreements” entered into between individual member countries and pharmaceutical companies. When he turns to public opinion to reveal his alleged scoop, the Austrian chancellor has already talked about it with some heads of state and government who say they are indignant, he reports. Too bad it’s a fake.
Austria, Denmark and Israel, agreement on Covid vaccines
The EU Commission responds tightly, recalling that every country has the right to an “opt out” with respect to the doses granted. And shortly afterwards it emerges, and it is Kurz himself who tweets it, that the indignant countries are the same ones that have ordered fewer doses than the system had recognized. “It is not the fault of the EU – admits the chancellor himself – but of the system of redistribution based on orders”. Exactly.
Kurz, however, does not give up. Continue to torture Brussels. And this morning, on the eve of the EU Council, the Austrian Chancellor has placed himself at the head of a delegation of six countries: together with the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Latvia, he is demanding a redefinition of quotas, to guarantee more to countries that had booked fewer. The chancellor points to “a corrective mechanism so that vaccinations proceed fairly in the future”.
Coronavirus, Austrian Chancellor Kurz splits the EU on vaccines: “We will produce with Israel”
from our correspondents Alberto d’Argenio, Tonia Mastrobuoni
The EU Commission is trying to resolve the issue in these hours, so as not to let it float on the table of the 27. But the Sherpas of the other member countries do not hide their strong irritation towards Vienna, after the fuss raised by Kurz against the EU Commission for faults attributable to the governments themselves. Moreover, Austria is not among the slowest countries in the vaccination campaign: by the end of June it is expected that it will be able to immunize 50% of the population, a little below the EU average.
According to a diplomatic source, the president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has in the meantime proposed to distribute to the six rebels two of the ten million doses of Pfizer / Biontech that will arrive earlier than expected. But Kurz would have already rejected the generous offer from Brussels, and would be saying no to even a more generous offer. Vienna asks for 400 thousand doses of that additional quota for itself, and according to the redistributive key it would be entitled to half of it (two million doses would in fact be divided in proportion to the population among the six countries).
Germany does not hide its irritation at the smear campaign against the EU and the bullying of Vienna. The minister for Europe, Michael Roth (SPD) said he was “surprised” by the controversy and made it clear that the six beggars would have ordered fewer doses than they were entitled to and did not see plausible reasons for changing the redistribution mechanism, which the minister called it “transparent and very fair”.
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