Jutarnji List reports that if the negotiations of the permanent representatives of the EU member states in COREPER are successful, Croatia could vaccinate just over half of the adult population with one COVID-19 vaccine dose by June 30, which would bring it closer to the EU average.
This is the essence of the European Council meeting held on Thursday, at which Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković advocated that 10 million doses of Pfizer vaccine, which will arrive in the second quarter of this year, be distributed so that more doses are given to those members who are being the EU vaccination average because they were left without large quantities of vaccines ordered from AstraZeneca.
Croatia has missed a lot because only 17 percent of the promised AstraZeneca doses arrived in Croatia. Thus, the country is currently third in the EU in terms of the number of vaccinated citizens with one dose, followed by Latvia and Bulgaria. No agreement was reached at the European Council. Still, the joint statement emphasized that the doses would be distributed according to the principle of European solidarity, which would have to be agreed upon by the political body. That fact alone gives us hope that Croatia could do well.
Namely, out of 100 million doses planned for delivery in the fourth quarter, Pfizer will deliver 10 million doses in the second quarter. They will now negotiate what percentage will go to the countries that lag behind the most and how much to all others.
Among the numerous proposals was that all 10 million doses go to the four, five, or six most severely deprived countries, including Croatia, but this could not pass because each country wants certain doses for itself. It was mentioned that Croatia could receive as many as 1.4 million doses by the end of June, but that, Prime Minister Plenković explained yesterday, was just one of the proposals.
While the amount of doses Croatia is now counting on is still unclear, given that it is a matter of negotiations, we know that a little more than half a million Pfizer doses would bring Croatia closer to the average by the end of June. With this dynamic, Croatia could have more than half of the adult population vaccinated.
Some countries have demanded that the principle continue, with these 10 million doses, to be exclusively proportional, i.e., concerning the number of inhabitants, but this would be unfavorable for Croatia because it would receive only 90,000 doses June 30, which would still lag behind the EU average.
As things stand now, Croatia will get far more than that; the goal is more than half a million to make up for the loss with others.
According to these calculations, Bulgaria should get the most, given the population and the fact that it is at the bottom of the EU in terms of vaccination.
“The conclusion on that topic was to find an agreement on the ratio of distributing those 10 million doses in the spirit of solidarity, which means that those who have less will get more,” said Plenković yesterday and later explained that EU leaders support compensating Croatia for the lack of vaccines.
The good news from the meeting is that the leaders agreed to distribute these doses according to the principle of solidarity. Still, the not-so-good news is that the rest of the vaccine will be distributed as before, according to the “pro-rata” principle. However, if the first goal is achieved, then further distribution according to the principle of proportionality is less unfavorable for Croatia.
These are the two messages from the summit that ended on Thursday before midnight. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s idea to “distribute the vaccine more fairly” between member states has only been understood when it comes to an additional 10 million doses without Austria, which, according to others, has not been missed.
Kurz was not only not supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel but also by Mark Rutte from the Netherlands. Austria will not be able to count on abandoning the principle of dividing the vaccine “pro-rata” according to the number of inhabitants and according to the quantity ordered by the states from individual producers. They won’t be able to count on most of these 10 million doses either.
However, Croatia, Bulgaria, Latvia, and the Czech Republic can benefit from this. When Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte says he is ready to agree to give more to Croatia, that is important news. Rutte is a classic representative of the school that in diplomacy, it is necessary to go cold-headed but also cold-hearted. So, if the principle of solidarity is agreed upon, which means that some need to give more for others to get more, the factual situation should also be taken into account. And the fact is that Austria, unlike Croatia and Bulgaria, does not lag far behind others in vaccination. Moreover, Austria is even above the EU average.
According to the plan presented by Ursula von der Leyen at the summit, 360 million doses will be delivered in the second quarter. But of that, just 70 million AstraZeneca, 200 million Pfizer doses, 35 million Moderna doses, and 55 million Johnson & Johnson.
To read more about COVID-19 in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page.
