Brussels studies starting the vaccination campaign in a coordinated way

Several EU leaders have proposed during the European Council held this Thursday and Friday in Brussels to maximize coordination during the imminent start of the vaccination campaign on the continent.

The leaders of the Twenty-seven thus intend to avoid misgivings and imbalances between regions and countries, similar to those experienced with the United Kingdom, by distancing themselves from the European strategy and bringing forward to last week the start of the immunization of its population.

The European Commission has picked up the gauntlet and, despite admitting the difficulty of this synchronicity effort, has promised to study the idea.

"The vaccines will have to be delivered in a coordinated manner so that they can arrive at the same time," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel at noon at the press appearance after the summit.

“Now, I don't know if we can do it to the point where they coincide at a precise time and with the [clock's] hand going at the same time in the States.

But the goal is to have access at the same time ”.

At the end of the European appointment, the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, explained that several countries, including Spain, have asked the Commission and the rest of the capitals for a strategy of "maximum coordination" with the intention of that "we go hand in hand and start vaccinating, if not on the same day, then during the same week."

This measured “spirit”, Sánchez said, has been reflected in the Council's conclusions.

In this document, the official text agreed by the leaders of the Twenty-seven after about 24 hours of negotiations without truce that have traveled from the recovery fund to climate change, the word “coordination” appears eight times, as is or in some of its derivatives.

Half of them in the section related to the strategy to face the pandemic.

Coordination has been one of the obsessions of the EU since the beginning of the health crisis, when each country acted alone with respect to its borders or the purchase of medical supplies, with disastrous results for all.

After the first wave of the coronavirus, the EU has sought to provide a response accompanied by, among other formulas, the so-called European vaccination strategy, which began in June and through which the Commission, on behalf of the Twenty-seven, has negotiated the pre-purchase of a portfolio diversified of about 2 billion doses of vaccines.

Among them are the already imminent punctures of Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, on whose safety and effectiveness the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will pronounce on December 29 (Pzifer / BioNTech) and December 12. January (Modern), the date on which the so-called conditional marketing authorization will foreseeably be granted.

From there, the Commission would give its final approval to the deployment of vaccines in a few days, as it has reiterated.

The big question is how to distribute them to the various corners of Europe thereafter to avoid tensions and the awakening of fierce vaccine nationalism.

The symbolic and triumphant image of the United Kingdom applying the first punctures of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine to its citizens - that endearing grandmother - did not sit well on this side of the English Channel, especially since it was a developed vaccine in the EU and by being administered to the British taking advantage of a subterfuge in the rules, something that the Twenty-seven had agreed to avoid in the interest of the solidarity of the community club.

Last week the EU had to come out in a rush to defend its vaccine certification process through the EMA against the British speed, which authorized them through an emergency process.

The London issue has also come up throughout the summit.

"Some leaders, few, have expressed their displeasure at the decision of [British Prime Minister Boris] Johnson to go ahead and give the impression that being outside the EU has advantages," says a senior EU official.

But Ursula von der Leyen, President of the Commission, would have convinced them in a "very didactic" way that the European approach "is better because it is about offering guarantees and security in the face of the massive vaccination campaign, which is the important one, and it will start in January ”.

This source assures that the EU maintains "calm and serenity in the face of this kind of

coup

for UK vaccines."

Several leaders, confirms this source, have proposed a common start “throughout a kind of 'European vaccination week'.

But it is very difficult, for different reasons, for all countries to start at the same time ”.

The reasons could include multiple factors, from logistics infrastructures to the degree of preparation of national vaccination strategies.

"Even so, Von der Leyen has promised to explore the idea and will make a proposal on the possibility of coordinating the operation," said the source.

The EU plan, which has negotiated the purchase of up to 460 million doses of the two vaccines whose approval process is more advanced, implies a deployment by countries proportional to the population.

Extreme synchronicity would somehow mean a victory for Brussels, which would be united in the face of the disease, would not leave any country behind, and in the end it would only go a few weeks behind the UK.

The objective, as stated by a diplomatic source, "is to avoid starting a race to be the first."

The Commission, in any case, has avoided committing itself to ensuring that all countries have access to vaccines at the same time and under the same conditions.

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