The President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced today that the EU will finance 145,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, that will be delivered in Albania during the period May – August. In a Tweet written in Albanian, the President of the EU Commission said that “we stand by our neighbours in the Western Balkans as I told to Edi Rama. 145,000 doses of vaccine financed by the EU will be delivered in Albania from May until the end of August. We are together in this fight.” Overall, 651,000 doses of vaccines funded by the EU and with the support of Austria will be delivered to the Western Balkans.
The President of the EU Commission declared also that 214,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be delivered in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 119,000 doses will be deliver in North Macedonia, 95,000 doses will be delivered in Kosovo, 42,000 doses in Montenegro, and 36,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be delivered in Serbia. According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria Alexander Schallenberg, the doses will not be distributed according to the population but according to the need of each country, as reported by DW. “With this initiative we are showing that we are not leaving the region behind,” said Schallenberg.
In Albania, so far more than 300,000 people have been vaccinated, according to the Minister of Health Ogerta Manastirliu.While initially Albania followed closely the FDA/EMA regulation on the approval of the vaccines, at the end of March decided to start a massive vaccination program with the Chinese Sinovac vaccine. Prime Minister Rama has repeatedly criticized the EU for not helping the WB countries to fight the pandemic.
