Vaccine doses not enough, and road ahead is bumpy – Von Der Leyen
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Euronews / POLITICO – The EU will have access to around 400 million COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of June, Ursula von der Leyen has told MEPs.
The European Commission president, who has come been criticised over the EU’s slow rollout, told MEPs there would be around 100 million jabs made available in the first quarter of this year, followed by 300 million in the following three months.
She told them the figure of expected doses was “not enough” and warned of a “bumpy road” ahead.
“We will have in the first quarter, around about 100 million doses that have been delivered; it’s 18 million in January; 33 million in February, and 55 million in March,” she said. “This is not enough but we are aiming at 300 (million) at least in the second quarter.
“And I know that there are a lot of difficulties now; it’s a bumpy road, it is difficult and there are a lot of problems to solve.
“On a daily basis, we have the challenge to overcome these problems but I really thank you for the support because I’m deeply convinced that when we look back one day, perhaps at the end of this year, we will see it was the right process and it was overall a good process.”
She also told members of the European Parliament that she accepted “full responsibility” for a provision added to the EU’s vaccination export ban that could have resulted in checks on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
In meetings with political groups in the Parliament that had demanded answers about the EU’s troubled coronavirus vaccine rollout, the European Commission president also said that Thierry Breton, the internal market commissioner, was trying to identify locations in Europe that could help ramp up vaccine production.
She also said the EU was urging pharmaceutical companies that might normally be rivals to team up to manufacture more doses as quickly as possible.
