Thread by @BBCkatyaadler

The EU Commission denies President von der Leyen “attacked”’the U.K. over its vaccine approval policy.
In an interview with a number of European papers she was asked about the slower approval by the European Medicines Agency of vaccines compared to countries eg U.K. but /1

The Commission says von der Leyen answered the question comparing two methods. Not singling out the U.K.
Journalists in the room report the same Eg elpais.com/sociedad/2021-… and repubblica.it/cronaca/2021/0… /2

Von der Leyen is quoted as saying “Some countries started to vaccinate a little before Europe, it is true,” “But they resorted to emergency, 24-hour marketing authorisation procedures. The commission and the member states agreed not to compromise with the safety and efficacy..“/3

“requirements linked to the authorisation of a vaccine. Time had to be taken to analyse the data, which, even minimised, takes three to four weeks. So, yes, Europe left it later, but it was the right decision” /4

This is a oft-heard defence by EU of delay in approving individual vaccines. From Commission but also EU countries which co-decided to take this approach. They say the slower approval is persuading more people initially “reluctant” to have a “new vaccine” (a big prob in France)/5

To say they’re now open to having the vaccine .. BUT the availability of vaccines in the EU is a whole other problem /6