EU leaders want to speed up the rollout after a slow start

LONDON – The European Union must speed up its efforts to vaccinate people against the coronavirus, the 27 heads of state said Thursday, as the region continues to grapple with a bumpy rollout.

The EU has had difficulties in manufacturing, supplying and red tape in applying Covid vaccines and is therefore struggling to catch up with vaccination rates elsewhere.

The European Commission said on Thursday that it expects approximately 100 million doses of vaccines to be delivered to the region by the end of the first quarter. This number is expected to rise to about 500 million doses by the end of June.

“We urgently need to accelerate the authorization, production and distribution of vaccines and vaccinations,” EU leaders said in a joint statement.

They are particularly concerned about new Covid variants, which are believed to be more contagious and which have already been identified in European countries. A rapid vaccination process could help protect the population of the region before the virus mutates significantly.

To this end, the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, is working with pharmaceutical companies to avoid further bottlenecks in the delivery process and is considering expanding production facilities on the continent.

“Currently 41 industrial sites contribute to vaccine production here in Europe, but many more could be connected. That is why we strongly encourage cooperation between industrial actors,” said Ursula von der Leyen, President of the Commission, who used to be a doctor. said at a press conference.

It stuck to its original goal of vaccinating at least 70% of the adult population in the EU by the end of the summer.

However, the coronavirus emergency continues in Europe, with a number of countries reporting an increase in the number of cases in recent days.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Thursday that the government is considering closing weekend locks in Paris and other parts of France. In Germany, meanwhile, Chancellor Angela Merkel warned of a possible third wave of infections if current restrictions are lifted too soon.

“We see stable and decreasing (infection) trends in 20 countries, but increasing trends in about 7 others,” said von der Leyen.

“At the same time, there is indeed a growing Covid-19 fatigue among our citizens,” she noted, after about a year of strict social restrictions across the bloc.

The containment measures, such as the prevention of non-essential travel, pose an additional challenge for the EU, given its policy on free movement of goods, persons and services.

Representatives of the major pharmaceutical companies involved in the production of Covid vaccines told European lawmakers on Thursday that they were working around the clock to develop and manufacture the injections.

CureVac’s CEO suggested the vaccine could be approved in June. Meanwhile, the European Medicines Agency is reviewing data from studies conducted by Johnson and Johnson and could issue market approval in a few weeks. To date, European regulators have approved the injections from AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer.