Members from the EP Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) participate in an exchange of views with Sandra GALLINA, EU’s lead negotiator on COVID-19 vaccines contracts, in the European Parliament in Brussels. The exchange of views is followed by a Q&A session, where MEPs quiz her on issues such as the EU’s procedure to approve the vaccines, what stage of the review process various vaccines have reached as well as the quantities bought by the EU. Statements by Silvia SARDONE (ID, IT), and Peter LIESE (EPP, DE).

Brussels

exchange of views

statement

meeting

Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

LIESE, Peter (EPP, DE)

healthcare safety (T)

CANFIN, Pascal (Renew, FR)

SARDONE, Silvia (ID, IT)

Coronavirus outbreak (T)

vaccination strategy (T)

GALLINA, Sandra (IT)

Exchange of views with the Commission on the issue of vaccines in the EU at ENVI Committee: extracts

Title: Exchange of views with the Commission on the issue of vaccines in the EU at ENVI Committee

SOUNDBITE (English), Pascal CANFIN (RE, FR), I will first say that we clearly saw yesterday the tweet by Stella Kyriakides, the Commissioner for Health, that we are going to be granted the access to the contracts in the reading room by today. So we are going to organise as the Parliament and of course, as ENVI Committee, we are going to organise collectively the access to these contracts.

SOUNDBITE (English), GALLINA Sandra, EU&#8217;s lead negotiator on COVID-19 vaccines contracts, The quantities are starting to be delivered. And, you know, as I mentioned in the past, in the contract we have agreed them include schedules that will be much richer starting from April onwards, quarter to is going to be the quarter with many doses. The first quarter we have doses. And I would say that they are, of course, not as abundant as many would like to have them, but they are, I would say, what was negotiated.

SOUNDBITE (English), GALLINA Sandra, EU&#8217;s lead negotiator on COVID-19 vaccines contracts, What I can say concerning the data on the side of the commission is that we will have a system through the ECDC, which is called Tessy,that has created a dedicated module for the member states to report the state of play and the number of vaccines that are used and vaccinations that take place.

SOUNDBITE (English),  GALLINA Sandra, EU&#8217;s lead negotiator on COVID-19 vaccines contracts, Commissioner Kiriakides announced that we are opening a reading room. We are starting with one contract because the company has agreed to disclose the contract. I think it's a very important step. Of course, its a beginning because you know I hope that the companies will agree little by little to show all the contracts. As Commission, we have no problem with the transparency. So I hope that at least with this first contract, you will be able to see the structure, what is included, and therefore see that when we are saying that we have fully respected the product liability directive.

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter LIESE (EPP, DE), I'm very happy that EMA agreed to get six doses instead of five from one mile. But yesterday I helped with the vaccination in Germany myself. And when you do it, be careful, you can lose. So let's advise the member states, let give them the rights then we can not only vaccinate twenty 20 percent more immediately, but up to 40 percent. That's the things we have to do now. Not talk about who should have done what in August. Let's have to vaccinate people.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Silvia SARDONE (ID, IT), Someone accuses the Commission of having waited too long for the Sanofi vaccine which is still not yet available. It's taken too long and the French are ordering the Pfizer vaccine. There have been a lot of discussions about bilateral agreements between Germany and Pfizer biotech which led to the purchase for the German people of another 30 million doses of vaccines. Cyprus, the country of the European commissioner for health is considering asking Israel for vaccines. The Portuguese Health Minister confirmed that some European countries have bought vaccines on their own. Denmark has announced its intention to buy Pfizer doses outside of the European framework. So it seems to be everyone for themselves, which is what we've seen since the very beginning of this pandemic.

SOUNDBITE (English), GALLINA Sandra, EU&#8217;s lead negotiator on COVID-19 vaccines contracts, May I clarify that you know we as Commission, we have delivered the negotiations, but fortunately or unfortunately, the element of the contract for the logistics, the order form, the quantities between the member state and the company.

SOUNDBITE (English), GALLINA Sandra, EU&#8217;s lead negotiator on COVID-19 vaccines contracts, So it is a bit up to the member states to identify then the priority group and perhaps they can include in this priority grouping cancer patients. So this is extremely important that you realise that there is this possibility.

SOUNDBITE (English), GALLINA Sandra, EU&#8217;s lead negotiator on COVID-19 vaccines contracts, All this issue of the priority groups is very important and I think it's also political. So the voice of the European Parliament should be heard on this. We as Commission, as I said, we have this communication. There are many groups that are listed there, but we did not rank them.