The Minister of Health spoke in a last-minute announcement about an extremely serious warning that no one should overlook because it tells us the situation of vaccine deliveries, but also Romania's refusal to receive all the doses which were tacitly ordered.
The Minister of Health says that Romania no longer has a place to store all these doses because all the storage capacities are full, but also that in 2021 they could give up receiving these doses, which are very expensive, but in the absence of a refusal they were produced .
"I am less familiar with what happened during 2021, but I can draw some conclusions. Basically, the framework agreement that was signed by the European Commission for the member states provided for the delivery of vaccines to all member states in trances, and the quantities that were contracted made it possible to vaccinate the entire European population with each of the vaccines.
These measures were taken before the vaccines were authorized, it was not known at the time which of them would receive the authorization. With each tranche of vaccines made by a producer, the country was notified, and had to say yes or no, I want to receive a share of that tranche, that is, the percentage of the European population that belongs to Romania, somewhere around 4.5%.
There is a legal possibility to refuse the receipt of some tranches in 2021, for some of them there is this possibility, and in May there was an express request that referred to deliveries in 2022 and 2023. There was an interval of several days in which we could say that we wanted it, or not, and in the absence of an answer it was considered a tacit approval.
As a result of this tacit approval, we did not have any new intervention, basically that document was signed that stipulated that for 2022 and 2023, a quantity of 39 million doses of vaccine will be purchased. This is an answer option that far exceeds the competence of the ministry (n. ed. regarding Poland's legal action to refuse the vaccine doses).
I made such information, and there are certain proposals from our side to try to find a solution. I said that I was very worried, and I am still very worried because beyond this very large and expensive contract, these tranches of vaccine are going to arrive in Romania, but we have nowhere to store it."
