BRUSSELS, Jan 8 (Reuters) - EU countries are not allowed to
negotiate separate vaccine deals with pharmaceutical companies
in parallel to the efforts of the European Union as a whole, the
president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said
on Friday.
"The only framework we are negotiating in is as 27. We do
this together and no member state on this legal binding basis is
allowed to negotiate in parallel or to have a contract in
parallel," von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels.
"The whole portfolio covers 2.3 billion doses of vaccines so
this is more than enough to vaccinate the whole European
population," she said.
(Reporting by Marine Strauss @StraussMarine; editing by Philip
Blenkinsop)