Kariņš has signed an open letter alongside his counterparts in Slovenia, Austria, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic addressed to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council Charles Michel that begins with expressions of gratitude for their "tireless efforts" on delivering vaccines to all EU citizens but then becomes more critical, saying that "deliveries of vaccine doses by pharma companies to individual EU member states are not being implemented on an equal basis".
Unequal treatment is totally unacceptable. #EU has enough power and resources to provide vaccines for all citizens above 18 within first half of the 2021. @JJansaSDS @SebastianKurz @BoykoBorissov @krisjaniskarins in @AndrejBabis pic.twitter.com/jPCHA7UDY5
— Slovenian Government (@govSlovenia) March 13, 2021
It continues to warn of "huge disparities among Member States by this summer" unless action is taken to ensure more equitable distribution of vaccines. The letter ends with a demand for a discussion on the matter "as soon as possible".
It is the second time in recent days that Kariņš has joined forces with other EU member states to call for a more effective response from Brussels. On 12 March, all three Baltic prime ministers held a conversation with Ursula von der Leyen expressing concerns about Covid-19 vaccine supply mismatches in which they called for a mechanism to allow the most affected Member States of the EU to access more vaccines.
During the meeting, the prime ministers of the Baltic States signed a joint statement "On a coordinated response to Covid and co-operation", stressing the need for faster vaccination against Covid-19 throughout the European Union and suggesting that where distribution "bottlenecks and stockpiling" occur in one country, available vaccines could be redistributed elsewhere.
