European Commission Seeks to Harmonise Member States' Vaccination Plans for COVID-19
- 16/10/2020
- Newsletters
On 15 October 2020 the European Commission (the Commission) published a Communication entitled “Preparedness for COVID-19 vaccination strategies and vaccine deployment” (the Communication - see, attachment). The Commission thus seeks to harmonise Member States’ vaccination plans for tackling Covid-19. The plan logically follows from the Commission’s efforts to advance purchase possible Covid-19 vaccines. The Commission has already entered into agreements with three suppliers and three or four more such agreements are in the pipeline (see, Van Bael & Bellis Life Sciences News Alerts of 12 October 2020, 21 September 2020, and 31 August 2020). They all form part of the European Vaccines Strategy which the Commission unveiled at the beginning of the Summer (see, Van Bael & Bellis Life Sciences News Alert of 18 June 2020).
In publishing the Communication, the Commission is now making further inroads into sensitive Member State terrain. As the Commission acknowledges, “the responsibility for health policy lies with Member States, and national strategies may differ due to several contributing factors such as different healthcare system capacities, population structure or epidemiological situation” (Communication, p. 9). At the same time, the Commission considers it important “to ensure the coordination of national responses to the pandemic” (Id.).
On that basis, the Communication first identifies key elements “for effective Covid-19 vaccination strategies” and lists associated actions. These involve developing vaccination services, storage and transportation facilities and vaccination registries. Additionally, the Commission stresses the need for clear communication and for tackling head-on misinformation. Significantly, the Commission also contemplates studies of vaccine effectiveness and safety.
The Communication’s second step is to have the Member States identify priority groups for the initial phases of vaccine deployment. The Communication cites such categories and again lists a series of associated preparatory actions.
The Communication concludes with a number of bridging steps towards widespread vaccine availability.