(from the correspondent Ileana Sciarra) “The legal and technical work on the green pass is underway with the aim of being ready in June. On the political front, we can aspire to have an agreement within this month”. Thus the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at a press conference at Palacio de Cristal in Porto.
On the vaccine front, “export is the best way to tackle the bottlenecks and the lack of vaccines”, he then reiterated. “The EU is the world’s pharmacy and open to the world”, on vaccines, remarked von der Leyen, underlining that the EU has “exported 200 million doses, we invite others to do the same”. In the meantime, he adds, “we are on track” to vaccinate “70% of the European adult population by July”.
The contract for 1.8 billion Pfizer doses announced today by the European Union, he adds, “includes the possibility for Member States to donate or resell the doses, so that we can offer them to our neighbors, for example,” he says in response questions from journalists at the end of the ‘two days’ in Porto. There will be “a quantity of doses in the portfolio that is potentially higher than we need,” explains Von der Leyen.