OREANDA-NEWS. EU member states should not conduct parallel negotiations for the supply of vaccines against coronavirus with manufacturers who have centralized procurement contracts on behalf of the European Commission, but they have every right to independently purchase vaccines from other manufacturers. This was announced at a briefing in Brussels by the official representative of the EC, Eric Mamer.

Earlier, the Secretary of State at the French Foreign Ministry, Clement Bon, speaking of the intention of a number of European countries to individually purchase doses of the Russian or Chinese vaccine against COVID-19, called for solidarity at the European level.

"Regarding the vaccine approval procedure, it is known to be carried out by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), but there is also a national emergency procedure that allows vaccines to be purchased without the approval of the European Commission and EMA recommendation. Therefore, an EU member state has the right to purchase vaccines subject to these conditions, "- added the representative of the European Commission.

Mamer added that "the EC's position is that a pan-European strategy has been approved in order to guarantee access to vaccines for all EU states in order to vaccinate all EU citizens. We continue to believe that this is a good framework for a vaccination strategy."

On Thursday, the European regulator EMA announced the beginning of a rolling review procedure for the Russian vaccine. The agency expects that the evaluation of the drug will take place in a shorter timeframe, but the date of approval of the drug has not yet been announced.