"Ministers exchanged views on COVID-19 vaccine procurement. At the current stage of the pandemic, a significant number of member states are dealing with an oversupply of vaccines, raising multiple budgetary and logistical questions," the Council said following a meeting of EU health ministers.
Ministers agreed that the joint vaccine purchase mechanism was an overall success and helped implement the common strategy, improving public health throughout the EU, the statement said. They also noted that this decision "saved lives."
"Vaccines work. They prevent countless cases of illness and save millions of lives every year. When EU countries work more together — to boost public confidence or speed up vaccine development — citizens and public health systems will be better off," Czech Health Minister Vlastimil Valek said in a statement.
At the same time, Valek pointed out that an oversupply of vaccines across the EU has shown that there is a need for a review of contracts on vaccines.
"We have an oversupply of vaccines [in the EU], and the situation is getting worse, as contracts are not taking into account the situation during the pandemic. We need to change contracts and we have agreed on it. Future supplies should conform to our needs," the Czech minister told a press conference following the meeting of EU health ministers.
Valek noted that paying for vaccines that were wasted rather than used was unacceptable.
The Council also held consultations on future adaptation of the existing agreements on vaccines supplies.