S.Ebastian Kurz presented himself as the winner on Thursday evening after a video summit of EU heads of state and government. “I am happy, relaxed and satisfied,” the Austrian president said after the talks. He “worked actively to provide vaccines in the European Union”. It was also decided for the second quarter.
Angela Merkel evaluated the result differently. The EU ambassadors, who now have to deal with the vaccine supply, “face the square of the circle,” the chancellor said. One thing is for sure: the controversy started by Kursal over the partial redistribution of the vaccine I Not resolved at the summit.
Two sentences were added to the final announcement of the summit. With the prime ministers of Croatia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Latvia calling it quits, nothing was mentioned about the “compensation mechanism”. It explicitly states: “We make sure that the vaccines are allocated proportionally to the population.” At the same time, heads of state and government are asking their EU ambassadors how quickly 10 million Vaccines The manufacturer’s Pfizer-Biotech second-quarter may be assigned to “run in unison.”
Three reasons for his determination
Kurz gave three reasons for his commitment Friday. First, if all EU countries can vaccinate their citizens to the same extent in the summer it is an important indication in terms of European policy. Second, most of the particularly affected states are more or less close to Austria. Briefly Croatia, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Slovakia; And Bulgaria in a broader sense. It is in Europe’s interest that the epidemic not continue to rage in those countries during the summer. Third, Kurs said in Vienna, it would certainly be better if Austria benefited from redistribution.
In Brussels, discontent briefly lasted Friday. Diplomats complained that the president had diverted attention from the most important debate over how the EU as a whole could get more vaccines. Contrary to what Kurz said, nothing has changed in this regard. When the ambassadors deal with this next week, Austria will be on the table of the EU Commission’s proper compromise proposal that it has so far rejected.
It is in the process of splitting the additional volume of the Biotech Pfizer vaccine into 10 million doses, which, according to a special key, the EU was able to secure in the second quarter. According to the population of 7 million dose to the countries most affected by the current unequal distribution, the rest should be distributed according to a different formula. Austria is not one of them.
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It was alleged in Brussels that Kurz was doing cheap “EU bashing” and that he was only interested in getting more vaccinations for his country. Merkel And other “employers” have agreed to help poorly provided countries – but not Austria. However, the rhetoric that Kurz justified his position domestically does not apply to such allegations. It did not appear to be “Austria at first”, and he did not provide the line that the German newspaper “Kurz breaks with EU defeats”.
In addition, the amount Austria can receive from redistribution – we are talking about a maximum of 400,000 instead of 200,000 cans – is not large in relation to the expected deliveries in the second quarter, which could lead to conflict for many participants (in Brussels, in several EU capitals, but also in the Green Alliance partner and their own party).
In early March, he flew to Israel with Danish Prime Minister Matteo Frederickson, citing Kurz as the reason for the random vaccine progress due to a shortage in vaccine supply. Since then, he has been accused of deciding on the distribution of an EU bureaucracy, not politicians. The accused, an Austrian civil servant on the group, was apparently victimized by one of his own political factions.
However, it is not in Kurz’s nature to deal with such a matter wisely. The controversy on the open stage had never affected him so far, but rather benefited him. He will be the driver of the debate on unequal vaccine progress in the EU rather than the driver of the debate on what is currently going wrong in Austria.
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