The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, once again rejected in the German press on Saturday criticism that the EU was too late in concluding vaccine pre-order agreements with pharmaceutical companies.
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Lhe difficulties in the supply of vaccines against Covid-19 in Europe are linked to the fact that there is “a global shortage of important components that go into the manufacture of vaccines”, she assured in a forum at the Sunday newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, broadcast on Saturday.
Recognizing that this problem was proving “painful” because of the high expectations of Europeans, she stressed: “if we had all been aware at the time of the risks associated with launching such mass production, then we would have tempered expectations for rapid vaccination ”.
His remarks come at a time when criticism is fired in Germany and Europe on the slowness taken by the vaccination campaign started on Boxing Day, while the populations appear exhausted by months of restrictions.
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The government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, of which Ursula von der Leyen is a former minister and a close friend, is particularly targeted by the Social Democrats who are in power as a minority partner of the “grand coalition”.
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The head of the European executive has repeatedly rejected these criticisms and received the support of Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday.
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The German leader notably assured that the decision of the Twenty-Seven to order doses together was “the right one”.
The variants worry
Ursula von der Leyen also reiterated in this forum that the EU would certainly face new problems due to the appearance of variants of the virus.
“We are concerned about these mutations,” she warned, although “fortunately” all the evidence so far shows that “our vaccines are also effective against these variants.” “We must now prepare for a scenario where the virus can no longer be sufficiently destroyed with current vaccines,” she warned.
Brussels is therefore working “without delay” with “industry and science” to “develop, authorize and produce vaccines against future variants,” concluded Ms. Von der Leyen.
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