an hour agoAustria to donate 651,000 Pfizer vaccines to Western Balkans
Periskopi(5 years ago)
(5 years ago)Austria said on Tuesday it is planning to separate 651,000 doses of company vaccine “Pfixer” and “BioNTech” for the six countries of the Western Balkans as part of a European Union scheme to provide assistance to neighbouring countries and Africa. These vaccines are expected to come as far as August. The European Commission put [...]
The European Commission highlighted the plan for the vaccine division mechanism in January this year. Austria said it would serve as the co-ordinator of this mechanism for the Western Balkans and that the first shipment of doses could be followed by additional shipments, Reuters writes.
Serbia has one of the highest vaccine rates in Europe, but the other four states that are EU members from the former Yugoslavia and Albania have had less success in this regard. In Bosnia, the lack of vaccines has led to protests.
With this initiative we are showing that we are not leaving this region” behind, Austrian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Schallenberg said. His country has close reports with Western Balkan countries.
This state's Foreign Ministry said Austrian authorities have negotiated agreements between companies “Pfizer” and “BioNTech” and member states. Austria will provide mediating financing of 11m euros, though the doses will be paid by EU funds for candidate countries for membership.
