European Union begins review of Russia’s Sputnik Covid vaccine

European countries are under pressure to speed up the rollout of Covid jabs as their program is clearly lagging behind other parts of the world, such as Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom.

The region is still mostly closed due to social restrictions, which is taking its toll on the economy and on people’s livelihoods.

Austria and Denmark have also recently joined forces with Israel in the production of second generation vaccines, aimed at dealing with variants of Covid-19. At the time of the announcement, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz mentioned that the EMA has been too slow in approving vaccines to fight the pandemic.

The institution has so far approved three vaccines: Pfizer’s, AstraZeneca’s and Moderna’s.

In addition, European countries have criticized pharmaceutical firms for some hurdles in the production and the delivery of the vaccines.

European nations have agreed that coordinated action would be the best way to deal with the health emergency and have tasked the European Commission with negotiating contracts with the pharmaceutical firms.

However, EU member states are still allowed under European law to approve their own vaccines without waiting for approval at the EU level.