The German government has been accused of breaching EU rules by striking a deal to secure an extra 30 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
Health Minister Jens Spahn has admitted that Germany purchased the extra doses of the Covid-19 vaccination in a separate agreement after agreeing to buy 60 million doses of the vaccine under an EU-wide deal.
Berlin struck the separate deal in September, when it was “trumpeting the virtues” of a common EU purchasing strategy during its tenure as rotating president of the European Union, The Telegraph reports.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
That strategy, conceived as an act of solidarity towards smaller members of the bloc, states that the 27 EU states agree “not to launch their own procedures for advance purchase of that vaccine with the same manufacturers”.
The European Commission “has largely refused to acknowledge” Germany’s “apparent violation of the strategy”, says Politico.
However, President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters on Friday that member states had agreed that “there will be no parallel negotiations or parallel contracts”.
News of Germany’s jabs deal “further muddies a week of confusion and finger-pointing between Berlin and Brussels as German politicians and media call the EU’s deals a ‘vaccination disaster’, claiming it hasn’t secured enough doses”, the news site reports.
Berlin reportedly decided to go it alone after failing to convince other EU states of the need to buy a further 100 million doses of the Pfizer jab.
The EU subsequently signed a deal to purchase 200 million doses of the vaccine. And that order was extended to a total of 600 million doses last week.
But despite the EU’s latest vaccine buy-up, Angela Merkel has been looking further afield to secure more jabs.
The German chancellor told Vladimir Putin last week that she was “open to the idea” of producing Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine in the EU, amid rising criticism of her handling of her country’s mass immunisation programme.
-
October 5 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday's political cartoons include half-truth hucksters, Capitol lockdown, and more
-
Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber bailoutTalking Point Should the government do more to protect business from the ‘cyber shockwave’?
-
Russia: already at war with Europe?Talking Point As Kremlin begins ‘cranking up attacks’ on Ukraine’s European allies, questions about future action remain unanswered
-
The new Stratus Covid strain – and why it’s on the riseThe Explainer ‘No evidence’ new variant is more dangerous or that vaccines won’t work against it, say UK health experts
-
Why are autism rates increasing?The Explainer Medical experts condemn Trump administration’s claim that paracetamol during pregnancy is linked to rising rates of neurodevelopmental disorder in US and UK
-
RFK Jr. vaccine panel advises restricting MMRV shotSpeed Read The committee voted to restrict access to a childhood vaccine against chickenpox
-
Texas declares end to measles outbreakSpeed Read The vaccine-preventable disease is still spreading in neighboring states, Mexico and Canada
-
RFK Jr. shuts down mRNA vaccine funding at agencySpeed Read The decision canceled or modified 22 projects, primarily for work on vaccines and therapeutics for respiratory viruses
-
Cytomegalovirus can cause permanent birth defectsThe Explainer The virus can show no symptoms in adults
-
RFK Jr. scraps Covid shots for pregnant women, kidsSpeed Read The Health Secretary announced a policy change without informing CDC officials
-
New FDA chiefs limit Covid-19 shots to elderly, sickspeed read The FDA set stricter approval standards for booster shots
