FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a small bottle labelled with a"Vaccine COVID-19" sticker and a medical syringe in this illustration taken April 10, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
That would represent a change of policy after the EU executive had advised the 27 EU governments not to purchase vaccines through the WHO scheme deeming it slow, expensive and legally incompatible with the parallel EU procurement programme, EU officials said in July. By forcing EU states to buy only through an EU scheme, the Commission could reduce the limited amount of doses initially available to less developed countries, because it would prioritise the 450 million EU citizens, effectively replicating nationalist policies of the United States and other countries critical of the WHO initiative.
They are also allowed to conduct parallel talks if they decide to opt-out from deals signed by the EU Commission. When Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands signed a preliminary deal with AstraZeneca in June over its potential vaccine, many EU governments complained of having been sidetracked, even if they were in theory offered access to doses.
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