Minutes: Steering Board Meeting, 21 August 2020
1. Update on AstraZeneca contract
The European Commission (EC) reminded the Member States (MS) that the five-day deadline to
opt-out expired on Friday-21 August 2020, except for
whose deadline
expired on Monday-24 August- due to a National holiday.
The European Commission stressed that no opt-out requests have been received so far.
As a matter of principle, the European Commission reassured that, in case some Member States
decide to opt-out, the doses becoming available would not be imposed on to the other Member
States, which will not be required to take more than their current pro rata. Instead, the other MS
(or the EEA) would have the possibility/option to take over the doses that become free.
If no Member State wishes to take the doses or in case of many opt-outs, the European
Commission drew the attention to the fact that the contract might need to be renegotiated, in
order to decrease the number of doses to which the EU may commit. In this case, Member States
need to be aware that other conditions, including
may change as well.
The European Commission underlined, also as a principle, that the aim of this process is to build
a portfolio, reminding the intensive ongoing parallel processes with six companies (AstraZeneca,
SANOFI, J&J, CureVac , Moderna and
BioNTech- hopefully next week). This portfolio
represents an insurance strategy as a) the successful vaccine is not known in advance and b) no
successful vaccine, on its own, can provide sufficient quantities (especially at the beginning). Its
underlying idea is one of solidarity, offering thus to all the possibility to potentially have the
right vaccine.
Some Member States explicitly supported this approach.
Q&A on AZ contract
The objective of the Q&A session was to give MS an opportunity to ask any remaining questions
on the AZ contract. Clarifications provided at the meeting are noted below.
The Member States called for an EU consolidated approach and not 27 individual commitments.
The Commission fully supported this and also argued in favour of a coordinated EU (EC +
Member State) approach towards participation in and support to COVAX.
2. An update on the joint procurement of vaccination supplies was provided in writing following
questions raised during the meeting.