Budget MEPs quiz EU health chief on vaccine policy

In a debate on Monday, Budget Committee Members questioned the European Commission’s Health Director General on vaccine availability and the use of the European Union budget.

In her introductory remarks, Sandra Gallina, Director General for Health and Food Safety in the European Commission, explained what the Commission is doing to obtain enough COVID-19 vaccines to reach its objective of having 70% of the EU’s adult population inoculated by the summer. Contracts had to be negotiated rapidly, she said, with liability and indemnification being of paramount importance. The EU has “gone beyond the 12-million-vaccinations mark”, she underlined, saying that “there is no need to envy the US or Israel”.

The Chairman of the Committee on Budgets Johan Van Overtveldt (ECR, BE) emphasised that Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) “did their duty”, by  adopting the Emergency Support Instrument in April and managing  to triple the EU4Health and boost the Horizon Europe research programmes in the negotiations on the EU long-term budget for 2021-2027.