Bulgaria’s Prime Minister to Charles Michel: We Don’t Want Dole, We Want Fair Vaccine Distribution in EU

We propose adoption of a compensatory mechanism for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in the EU on a per capita basis. This was stated by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov after a video conference meeting with The President of the European Council Charles Michel, attended by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Prime Ministers of Slovenia - Yanez Jansa, Croatia’sAndrey Plenkovic, Latvia’s Arturs Krsijanis Karins, and Andrej Babiš of the Czech Republic.

The Prime Minister explained that the aim is to compensate countries that have received fewer vaccine doses.

The conversation took place after yesterday's working meeting in Vienna on a fair distribution of vaccines in the EU.

Borissov insisted that the issue of the compensation mechanism should be resolved before the European Council meeting in Brussels, scheduled for next week. He expressed hope that all Member States would support the idea because, in his words, only in this way can the European principle of solidarity be respected.

The Prime Minister thanked European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel for the work done and expressed confidence that, knowing about the difficulties with the supply of vaccines, they would find an opportunity for corrections through the proposed compensation mechanism.

"We have not participated in the approval of vaccines or in contracts negotiations. And now the contracts are not being executed, and smaller quantities of vaccines are being delivered, even though we pay diligently", Borissov stressed.

He recalled that Member States invested in the development of vaccines long before they were produced.

We remind that Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz confirmed the suspicion that some countries actually receive larger supplies and thus succeed in achieving a higher percentage of vaccinated in a short time. This happens due to secret contracts with pharmaceutical companies in contravention of EU rules.

As an example, Kurz gave Malta, which will receive three times as many doses per capita than Bulgaria by the end of July. So will the Netherlands, which will overtake Germany in terms of vaccination rate by the end of June and receive almost twice as much as Croatia.

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