BRUSSELS (BELGIUM) – European Union leaders will meet on Thursday to try to ramp up the production and rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in fight against the emergence of new variants.
They will also take into account how to strike the right balance between restrictions to prevent the spread of infections. It will also discuss about keeping borders open facilitating a smooth flow of goods and services across the single market.
An EU official ahead of the videoconference of the 27 leaders that starts at 1400 GMT, said, “The pressure on everyone is maximum now,” said “This virus does not care about borders, so if we do not coordinate we won’t get out of this together.”
Although infection rates have come down in about 20 of the bloc’s member states, concerns have been surfacing regarding fresh spikes as a UK variant spreads, to reign over, as the dominant strain.
The Prime Minister of Czech government, Andrej Babis warned that hospitals faced “catastrophe” if no action is taken. On the other hand in France, where infection rates are climbing again, the government has given orders for a lockdown in the Dunkirk area and signalled that new curbs might be introduced elsewhere.
The executive EU Commission and EU member states themselves have been receiving criticism for taking wrong steps in their joint vaccine procurement programme. Moreover, rollout of shots has been faltering, because of which it lagged behind Israel, Britain and the United States.
The European Commission has said hiccups in supply that hampered the launch of vaccination programmes will soon be chiselled out. However, member states want assurances that the delivery of shots will be more smooth and that new vaccines can be quickly manufactured to deal with new variants.
The leaders of five EU countries said in a joint letter ahead of the summit, “We urgently need to integrate and strategically steer our vaccine production capacities in Europe. The approach should reflect that we cannot afford to lose this battle.”
The European Medicines Agency regulator is likely to issue guidelines this week to ramp up the approval of vaccines revamped for new coronavirus variants.
The EU leaders will agree during their meeting to work on certificates of inoculation for citizens who have had an anti-COVID shot, with southern countries that rely on tourism for rescue, this summer’s holiday season.
However, some countries, such as France and Germany, are stepping with caution, over EU-wide certificates for those already vaccinated as it is likely to create a de facto vaccination obligation and might result in indifference against those who cannot or will not take a shot.