The unexpected bet of the European Union by Sputnik V to accelerate its vaccination

BRUSSELS – Publicly, European Union (EU) has dismissed Russia’s global vaccine supply campaign as a publicity stunt for an unwanted diet.

But behind the scenes, and in the face of the ups and downs of efforts to vaccinate its 450 million inhabitants, the European regional bloc began to enthusiastically watch Sputnik V distributed by the Kremlin, according to diplomats and European officials.

Official negotiating with manufacturers on behalf of the bloc says EU governments plan to start talks with developers of Sputnik V and that there are four EU states that could request that process be started .

Hungary and Slovakia have already bought the Russian vaccine, the Czech Republic is interested, and the EU official says that Italy plans to use the country’s largest vaccine production bioreactor – the ReiThera plant near Rome – to make Sputnik V.

Brussels officials have been criticized for the slowness of the bloc’s vaccination campaign, just as Britain, a brand new ex-EU member, begins to ease restrictions thanks to the good pace of its vaccination program. During, Italy had to deepen its quarantine, hospitals in the Paris region are on the verge of collapse, and Germany has already warned of the arrival of the third wave.

The EU has signed agreements with six Western laboratories and started conversations with two other. The block approved four vaccines to date, but the bottleneck in production has delayed inoculation and some Member States are already looking for their own solutions.

If Sputnik V joins EU vaccine arsenal, it would be a diplomatic triumph for Russia, whose exchanges with the bloc have been in tension for years, due to European sanctions against Russia for the annexation of the Crimean peninsula and its interference in eastern Ukraine.

If it comes to fruition, the bloc could also be divided between states that absolutely refuse to take a step back from Moscow and those that prefer to show that cooperation between Brussels and the Kremlin is possible.

Another EU official said the ReiThera plant was mentioned in a meeting by Italian officials as a possible site for other non-Italian biotech companies to make Covid vaccines.

ReiThera, which owns a 30% stake in the Italian state, is developing its own vaccine against Covid-19, but the laboratory declined to comment.

A spokeswoman for the Italian Ministry of Industry declined to comment on the possible use of the ReiThera plant to make Sputnik V, saying only that “We will produce all licensed vaccines wherever we can.”

A spokesperson for the European Commission, which coordinates talks with manufacturers, said the EU had not asked to start talks with the developers of Sputnik V, even though the regional bloc’s pharmaceutical regulator ended up approve the vaccine.

It remains to be seen whether the states that ordered Sputnik V under bilateral agreements would be interested in a joint purchase via the EU. Government spokespersons for the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia made no comment.

Negotiations with vaccine makers typically took months to agree on shipments, and the EU official said there was no decision yet on a possible approach from Sputnik V developers after internal discussions on the matter.

EU has expressed doubts over Sputnik V for months, citing the lack of data and calling the vaccine a propaganda tool for the Kremlin’s foreign policy.

On February 17, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, He questioned the Kremlin’s reasons for exporting millions of doses despite the slow deployment in his own country, where proportionately fewer people have been vaccinated than in the EU, according to public data.

Even last week Charles Michel, who chairs the summits of European leaders, once again questioned Russia’s motives for promoting Sputnik V. “We must not be fooled by China and Russia, regimes with less desirable values ​​than ours, since they organize operations to distribute vaccines to other countries which are very limited, but widely disseminated”, He said. “Europe will not apply vaccines that are used for propaganda purposes.”

Neither Moscow nor Beijing have officially responded to Michel’s comments, although previously Russia accused EU of politicizing vaccine issue.

However, the discourse on Sputnik within the EU had already started to change from February 2, with the publication of the reference to clinical trial data, which showed that the Russian vaccine is 92% effective, superior to Oxford-AstraZeneca and very close to Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.

Then on February 25 there was a new twist, when Mario draghi made his debut at a European summit as the new Italian Prime Minister.

The former head of the European Central Bank, much appreciated in Brussels for having saved the euro from its worst crisis a few years ago, adopted a strong position in vaccines, both to accelerate the rate of inoculation and production in Europe. Draghi told his fellow leaders that the EU should buy more doses, even outside the bloc, and develop its own vaccine production.

Italy, which traditionally supports a more flexible stance towards Moscow, is now pressuring other EU governments to reconsider the Sputnik V issue. Last Wednesday, at a meeting of European diplomats, the Italian representative urged the EU to expand its supply of vaccines, including the Russian vaccine, according to an official who attended the meeting.

A spokesperson for the Italian delegation to the EU declined to comment.

In early March, when asked about Sputnik V, the Italian Minister of Health said: “If a vaccine works and regulators tell us it’s safe, nationality doesn’t matter. Italy is ready to collaborate with the Russian government ”.

Still, any reluctance by the EU to enter talks with the developers of Sputnik V could be diluted if the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approves the vaccine and member states agree to manufacture the Russian vaccine in production plants. on European territory.

On March 4, the EMA released an ongoing review of Sputnik V, the first step in a process that could lead to its approval across the EU. A European official familiar with the process said the decision on a possible clearance would come in early May.

On the production side, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which finances the manufacture of the vaccine, signed an agreement last week with Swiss pharmaceutical company Adienne to produce small quantities of Sputnik V in Italy, although the Italian government did not participate in the agreement. .

But if Rome does come to a deal with ReiThera, it would be Sputnik V’s most significant endorsement to date, eclipsing the deals Moscow has made with other countries, including Brazil, Argentina and India.

Berlin has also expressed interest in producing Sputnik V in Germany., and the Russian Fund has previously reported that it is negotiating production agreements with several EU countries.

The Russian Fund prefers not to comment on specific agreements with companies to manufacture Sputnik V within the EU, nor on a possible change of position of the regional bloc vis-à-vis the vaccine.

In Brussels, an EU diplomat assures us that if the EMA approves Sputnik, the bloc is likely to be divided between members in favor of cooperation with Russia and those who oppose.

Ties between Russia and the West, already at their all-time low in the post-Cold War era, have recently come under new strain, due to the Kremlin’s treatment of political opponent Alexei Navalny, whose imprisonment led Brussels and Washington. to impose new sanctions on Moscow.

“We will fall into the usual division: ‘if it’s Russian, it’s bad’ against ‘but come on, we have to learn to work with these people” “said the European diplomat. “There will be those who do not want to offer Russia this propaganda victory, and there will be others who see it as an opportunity to show that cooperation is possible.”

Translation of Jaime Arrambide

Reuters