It is clear that some countries received too much vaccine, while others received too little, and even if Austria has not been harmed so far, this contradicts the agreement of the leaders of the member states and is not good for Europe, emphasized Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Therefore, according to him, it is absolutely necessary to clarify how this situation could have developed, to make the contracts transparent, and to equalize the inequalities that currently exist between the member countries in terms of vaccine distribution.
It can be stated that, contrary to the plan adopted by the heads of state and government, vaccines are not delivered in proportion to the population in the EU, said Kurz. For example, he mentioned that Malta receives three times as much as Bulgaria, the Netherlands twice as much as Croatia. Austria is in the middle ground when it comes to the fair distribution of vaccines due to the member states, the country has so far received 1.2 million doses, which roughly corresponds to the population-proportional distribution of vaccines received in the Union so far.
The EU ordered vaccines for all member states as part of a joint procurement project in June, yet in recent weeks we see and wonder how it is possible that Denmark is far above the EU average in terms of administered vaccines, while Latvia, for example, is well behind.
Kurz - criticizing the slow and unfair distribution in Brussels - discussed the issue by phone with several EU heads of state.
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