Finnish President Sauli Niinistö has criticized the European Union for the joint procurement of coronavirus vaccines.
"What [vaccines] what binding commitments have been made? No doubt they should have done better here. We have examples of countries that have been more successful than the EU in obtaining vaccines," the president said in an interview with Ilta-Sanomat, which was released on Saturday.
Niinistö criticizes the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which approves vaccines in the EU, saying "far behind" AstraZeneca and so on "now Johnson & Johnson is behind".
The United States approved the use of a single dose of J&J vaccine on February 27th. The EMA is not expected to finalize the permit until Thursday, March 11th.
Direct purchases “interesting”
The President commented on the idea of whether Finland should try to obtain vaccines itself "interesting".
"Some EU countries, such as Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, have used their own medical authorities to bypass the EU common approval process. Of course, I can’t comment on which vaccine is good or what should be available here," he said.
When asked whether Finland tried to get vaccines outside the EU approval process, he answered indirectly.
"If we think about the future and the situation looks bad … virus alternatives are spreading rapidly in Finland as well. It would be a really difficult situation if people in Europe desperately demanded access to vaccines [that] Are available [elsewhere] around the world. All possibilities must be assessed transparently," he said.
Putin offered vaccine technology in January
Niinistö confirmed the President of Russia Vladimir Putin has offered to supply Finland with technology for the production of Sputnik V vaccine. Speaker of the Upper House of the Russian Parliament, Valentina Matviyenko, last week raised the issue in talks with the former president Tarja Halonen as part of his work in the WHO European Group on Covid-19.
"Putin has talked about his vaccine many times. In January, he talked about possible vaccine cooperation with Europe and the readiness to open it in Finland as well," Niinistö said. The two heads of state had a long telephone conversation on 21 January.
Niinistö announced that Finland would not make progress until the EMA evaluated the Sputnik vaccine for use in the EU.
Movement restrictions may be required
According to Niinistö, it is clear that movement restrictions may once again be necessary to curb the spread of new infectious coronavirus alternatives in Finland. According to him, Finland is in a situation where there are only more problems. The number of diseases is rising rapidly.
"Yes, we need to respond to that. Maybe there are some restrictions on movement, like we had last spring. I don’t know if there’s one, but we have to react," he said.
The role of the presidential pandemic is limited
From mid-March to early April 2020, traffic was severely restricted from the densely populated Uusimaa region of Southern Finland, including Helsinki.
Under the current Finnish Constitution, which entered into force in 2000, the President is primarily responsible for foreign relations. EU affairs are mainly handled by the government, which is also responsible for home affairs.
The powers of the president have been gradually reduced after an authoritarian regime Urho Kekkonen, who held office from 1956 to 1982.
Source: The Nordic Page