With China's help: Serbia and Hungary are duping the EU in corona vaccination - but there are also concerns

Serbia and Hungary are vaccinating Chinese vaccines on a large scale.

Both countries justify the step with slow deliveries from the EU.

Munich - Serbia is not in the European Union and is miles away from Germany's economic strength.

But with the corona vaccinations, progress is much faster in Serbia than in this country - and in the other EU countries.

Great Britain is the only country in Europe where the percentage of people vaccinated is currently higher than in Serbia.

This is also due to the fact that the Serbian government can also be supplied with corona vaccination doses from China and Russia.

Hungary is the only country in the EU to have approved the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine and ordered five million doses.

The country began inoculating the Chinese vaccines on Wednesday.

Within a week, 275,000 people are to be vaccinated with the drug, which is not approved in the EU, said the chief medical officer Cecilia Müller in an online press conference.

"We are taking an important step to protect the population from the coronavirus," she added.

Both countries justify their orders in China with the slow delivery of vaccines approved in Europe.

Serbia and Hungary: disappointed with slow deliveries from the EU

In the large exhibition hall in Belgrade, dozens of nurses in protective suits have already injected numerous corona vaccination syringes into elderly and young people.

It usually only takes 15 minutes from arrival to vaccination.

According to the

Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker

from the news agency of the same name,

Serbia has

injected at least one dose with 1,364,000 vaccine doses to date, almost 20 percent of the population.

A good 7 percent have already received two doses.

In Hungary 7.4 percent received at least one dose.

For comparison: In Germany the rate is 6.7 percent.

According to local reports, 544,000 Chinese vaccine doses had been injected in Serbia by mid-February.

In Hungary, the vaccines from Biontech-Pfizer, Moderna and Astrazeneca as well as the Russian vaccine Sputnik V were used in smaller quantities until Wednesday.

Smaller quantities of these vaccines had also arrived in Serbia - but only 11,000 doses of the Biontech-Pfizer vaccine by the beginning of February.

+

Arrival from China: Serbia has so far vaccinated more than half a million people with the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine.

© Darko Vojinovic / picture alliance / dpa / AP

China: Serbia's President Vucic praises vaccination cooperation - and himself

The deliveries to Eastern Europe are part of the Chinese vaccination diplomacy.

China sells its corona vaccines in 27 countries and supplies 53 poor countries for free, Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently said.

A free shipment was also recently delivered to Belarus.

China is the first country to make vaccines a public global good, said the Foreign Ministry in Beijing.

The vaccine deliveries to Europe are a diplomatic coup for China, which is trying to gain influence in eastern and south-eastern Europe.

The country has been successful in Serbia for years.

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic is considered extremely China-friendly and likes to portray himself as a hero in the Corona crisis.

"I wrote to Xi Jinping in October and the price was drastically reduced," Vucic told local media about his negotiations with China's president about the Sinopharm supplies.

"Vucic, Putin and Xi save Serbia", summarized a pro-government tabloid the vaccination situation.

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban recently praised Serbia's “inspiring example” in vaccine procurement.

The neighboring country is a "laboratory" to test how things are going with the Sinopharm vaccine.

EU: Serbia's largest trading partner - but Belgrade sees itself between east and west

The EU is the largest trading partner and investor in Serbia, and Serbia would like to continue to become a member of the EU.

“Nevertheless, with a few exceptions, Serbian officials did not emphasize the cooperation with Brussels as much as they did with China,” emphasizes Stefan Vladisavljev from the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence in an article for CHOICE, a network of Eastern European China experts.

"Serbia was once again positioned between the West and the East."

In Serbia there are repeated allegations against the EU that it is letting the Western Balkan countries down in the struggle for corona vaccinations.

Apart from Albania, Serbia is the only country in the region that has already started immunization.

"At a time when Serbian officials are promoting the Chinese vaccine and praising the cooperation with China, the EU is not providing any visible aid, but repeatedly criticizing the Sino-Serbian friendship," said Vladisavljev.

Meanwhile, the EU itself is arguing with the manufacturers about how their delivery obligations can be met and production capacities increased.

China vaccine: Concern in Eastern Europe about rushed emergency approval

Concern about the hasty approval of the Sinopharm vaccine is mixed in with the relief of the arrival of Chinese vaccines in Hungary and Serbia. In Hungary, for example, the Sinopharm vaccine received an emergency approval shortly after delivery. There was also a shortened procedure in Serbia. In Hungarian expert circles, the Chinese vaccine is therefore skeptical because of the lack of studies. "Little information is available about the effectiveness of the vaccination," wrote a Budapest family doctor in an email to his patients. “I can't say to whom it can be recommended - but whoever wants it, I'll give it to.” Should the EU or the United Nations vaccine program Covax increase their deliveries, that should be welcome in the region.

(ck with dpa and AFP)