Irish Daily Mail

France and Germany are ‘squeezing out’ smaller countries in vaccine supply race

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IRELAND and other small countries are being squeezed out of vaccine supplies by the greater buying power of France and Germany, Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher has claimed. He raised the issue of a two-tier response to Covid against a backdrop of growing unease across the EU over distributi­on levels. EU figures show Germany, with 83million people, will receive nearly 4million Pfizer doses by the end of the month. By contrast Romania, whose population is a quarter of Germany’s, expects to receive only 600,000. Bulgaria, with 8million people expects only 60,000 Pfizer shots this month.

A spokesman for the EU Commission said it partly depended on the contracts signed by each state.

Mr Kelleher said: ‘I really hope it is not the case that, in the eyes of Germany, France, and the Commission, all member states are equal, but some more equal than others.’

And Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen has criticised ‘the failure of the EU to play a greater leadership role at a time of its greatest need’, and he added:. ‘The lack of European cohesion on coronaviru­s from day one has been disappoint­ing.’

 ??  ?? Defiant: Minister Darragh O’Brien
Defiant: Minister Darragh O’Brien

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