Israel is to hold talks with Austria and Denmark about working together to make coronavirus vaccines, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen plan to visit Israel on Thursday to discuss “an international corporation for the manufacture of vaccines,” Reuters told Netanyahu.
The Austrian and Danish leaders’ move is the latest blow to the EU’s vaccination strategy, coming the same day that Poland asked China for vaccinations and Slovakia ordered 2 million doses of Sputnik vaccine V of Russia, and just days after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán received his first dose of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, which was not approved by the European Medicines Agency.
Kurz told German news site Bild that Austria and Denmark do not want to “only” rely on the EU for vaccines, citing the block’s manufacturing issues and the EMA’s slow approval process.
“We agreed in the summer that EU vaccines for the member states would be purchased in a timely manner and agreed promptly,” Kurz said. “While this approach was fundamentally correct,” the EMA is too slow in approving vaccines and there are delivery bottles from pharmaceutical companies. “
Frederiksen was cautious at a press conference on Monday, saying the talks with Israel did not mean a lack of confidence in the EU, but added that countries must do everything they can to ensure a vaccine outcome. motivation.
“We may be in a situation where we not only need the vaccine, but re – vaccination, maybe once a year … That’s why we need to significantly increase vaccine production,” said Frederiksen. , according to the Financial Times.
The FT also said that the leaders are considering creating stocks of vaccines, citing officials in Austria and Copenhagen.
The European Commission was not able to comment immediately.