Portugal’s prime minister, António Costa, on Friday described the idea of European Union member states buying vaccines unilaterally as “not very smart” and as weakening the European Commission’s bargaining position for its joint orders, and argued that if Portugal were forced to go at it alone it would end up buying fewer doses more expensive doses of vaccines.
Costa made the comments at a joint news conference with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, after journalists asked them whether some EU members, such as Hungary, would purchase vaccines via deals negotiated directly with manufacturers, including on the Chinese market.
“We are all stronger if the negotiation is done by the European Commission on behalf of all and not every man for himself,” argued the prime minister. “That way, we will be stronger, we will get the necessary quantity and we will also be stronger in the sense of getting the best price.”
According to Costa, “if Portugal negotiated the purchase of vaccines alone, in competition with the European Union, it would surely pay more and it would not have more vaccines.”
In response to journalists’ questions, Costa also addressed the issue of resorting to the purchase of vaccines not approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), namely in the Chinese market.
“We have to have vaccines quickly and a great effort has been made by the EMA to speed up the licensing process, but without sacrificing the safety factor,” he said. “We don’t want just any vaccine; we want a vaccine that the EMA certifies is safe and effective for the intended purpose.”
The idea of buying vaccines from other markets that are not approved, or the intention to divide the European Union’s negotiating capacity, “is anything but clever” according to Costa.
“So what governments have to explain – and people understand – is that the effort being made by the European Commission is extraordinary,” he said, with the commission president looking on. “Thanks to that effort we already have millions of European citizens who have received at least the first dose of the vaccine and next week they will receive the second dose.”
At this point, Costa said that he could “understand the enormous anxiety in the face of a Covid-19 pandemic that causes a desperate reaction” in people. “But we have to know how to manage that anxiety.
“For all to go well, the European Commission must continue to buy on behalf of all member states, distribute on behalf of all on the same day according to their population, and each member state is free to organise its own vaccination plan,” he went on. “This implies a great deal of discipline to get to the goal [to which9 we all aspire, to have group immunity, but that will take months.”
In his response to questions about the process of vaccination, Costa again equated the fight against Covid-19 with a marathon.
“We are not in a hundred-meter race,” he said. “We are in a 42 kilometer marathon. But marathons are also won.”
Still, on the subject of Covid-19 vaccines, the prime minister issued a “recommendation” to all EU member states to anticipate possible shortages throughout the vaccine distribution process.
“It is a process that will last several months and, of course, there may be incidents in the supply chairs, either from factories, [on] the transport circuit or [at] the reception site,” he argued. “This is why Portugal took the decision to administer only half of the doses received in order to set up a reserve for the second dose.”
That way, he argued, “the risk of the vaccination process not being concluded because of one incident is avoided.
“This is a recommendation I make regarding vaccines that require two doses and have a set deadline for that second dose to be applied,” he concluded.
