The European Commission and Austria will send at least 145,000 doses of BioNTech /Pfizer in Albania. The Reuters reports that Austria announced on Tuesday their plans to supply 651,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine to six Western Balkan countries by August.
It is a scheme of the European Union that aims to help fight the pandemic neighboring countries and Africa.
“With this initiative we are showing that we are not leaving the region behind,” Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told a news conference.
Austria has negotiated agreements between BioNTech and Pfizer and the recipient countries, its Foreign Ministry said. It will provide bridge financing of 11 million euros though the doses will be paid for from EU assistance funds for EU candidate and potential candidate countries.
“There is absolutely no connection here to the provision of vaccines in Austria and in other (EU) member states,” said Schallenberg.
“These doses are not from a national quota. These are vaccine doses that the EU explicitly secured from the beginning for the purpose of passing them on to partners.”
As announced by Austria, the doses will start to be distributed from the beginning of May, giving priority to the most affected countries. Bosnia will receive 214,000 doses, followed by Albania with 145,000 and Northern Macedonia with 119,000. Serbia is last with 36,000. /abcnews.al
