REUTERS. French President Emmanuel Macron said he supported the European Commission's stance on vaccine deliveries, as he met with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Wednesday (March 17).
Emmanuel Macron, French President: "This pandemic led us to set up collective responses, with the creation last summer of a common vaccine purchase platform to make sure no member state is left aside when it comes to (eds note: vaccine) orders."
The European Union on Wednesday threatened to ban exports of COVID-19 vaccines to Britain to safeguard scarce doses for its own citizens facing a third wave of the pandemic that would jeopardise plans to restart travel this summer.
Macron also said Europe would be one of the biggest producers of coronavirus vaccines in the coming months.
Morawiecki said it was important for Europe to act "with solidarity" when it came to combating the coronavirus pandemic, and called for more vaccines to be produced in Europe.
Mateusz Morawiecki, Polish Prime Minister: "Today we are verifying our ability to respond to the biggest crisis we have experienced in many countries for the past decades, the biggest crisis since World War Two. And indeed today, the vaccination programmes, the cooperation with the European Council and the pressure we put on the companies, producers of vaccines to deliver them to France, to Poland, to Europe, to the whole European Union as soon as possible is a fundamental task we are carrying out together. We are aware of objective difficulties but at the same time we underline how important it is for all of Europe to act in solidarity in this sphere. It also proves how important it is for the production, its particular elements and sectors to be European. Emmanuel talked about it many times and I very strongly support France in saying that we must get the production that over the past twenty or thirty years has been, so to say, outsourced outside Europe, back to Europe, to France, to Poland. This is crucial for European autonomy in the spheres which fundamentally important."
Both countries are still reporting tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases daily. Poland announced on Wednesday shopping malls, hotels, theatres and cinemas would close nationwide from Saturday (March 20).
