site.btaPM Borissov Talks on Phone with Austrian Chancellor Kurz about COVID Vaccines' Distribution

March 12 (BTA) - Prime Minister Boyko Borissov held a phone conversation with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, the Government Information Service said Friday. The Bulgarian head of government expressed support for his Austrian counterpart's initiative to carefully review the manner of COVID-19 vaccines' supply and distribution to the EU Member States.

Earlier on Friday, Bulgaria was mentioned by the Austrian Chancellor as a country which receives less vaccines than it is entitled to in proportion to the population, as had been agreed among the EU Member States. He held a news conference in Vienna to criticize the uneven distribution of vaccines, blaming it on the vaccination steering board of the EU. He suggested that this steering board may be brokering secret deals between some Member States and drug companies about vaccines. The European Commission swiftly denied the accusations saying that the Member States have an opportunity to request smaller or larger amounts of the vaccines they are entitled to proportional to their population.

According to Borissov, the vaccines' distribution should follow the principle agreed upon by the heads of State and government during the European Council meeting on January 21. According to the conclusions from that meeting presented by European Council President Charles Michel, the vaccines should be supplied simultaneously and distributed proportionally to the Member States' populations.

The Bulgarian Prime Minister expressed gratitude to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her team for the work done on finalising the vaccine deals and providing vaccines for the whole EU.

Borissov recalled how at the start of the pandemic last year, Bulgaria was one of the first countries to quickly manage to reorganize manufacturing so as to start producing personal protective equipment, thus meeting its own needs and offering other countries help in filling their shortages. "We should continue in this manner of solidarity in the future as well," Borissov said. In his words, it is a question of solidarity for all Member States to have equal access to the important resource that COVID-19 vaccines are.

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