EU Open To Use of Approved COVID-19 Vaccines

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday said that COVID-19 vaccines from Russia and China could be approved for use in the European Union (EU) if their full information is submitted.

RELATED:

Russia Applies for Registration of Sputnik V Vaccine in the EU

If Chinese producers "show all the data... then they could get... a conditional market authorization like the other ones," von der Leyen said.

One of the criteria for the EU contracts for vaccines is that companies have the capacity to produce them inside the bloc. Europe is now facing a vaccine shortage as pharmacies are supplying vaccines slower than anticipated.

The EU has so far signed agreements with six suppliers but the vaccines approved by the bloc are from U.S.-Germany joint venture Pfizer and BioNTech, British-Swedish AstraZeneca, and Moderna from the United States.

On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that every COVID-19 vaccine is welcome in the EU as the bloc is facing vaccine delivery difficulties.

"Serbia is vaccinating with the Chinese vaccine. We have always said that every vaccine trying to obtain approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is very welcome," Merkel pointed out, adding that by the end of summer everyone in Germany could be able to get at least the first of the two necessary vaccinations.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron said that all vaccines that are approved by European and national health authorities will be welcome in his country.

“Decision-making on vaccine should be scientific, rather than political,” he stressed.

Spain’s Health Minister Carolina Darias said that her country will be "open" to the use of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine once authorized by the EMA.

For now, Hungary is the only EU member state that has authorized the use of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine and the Russian vaccine.