Austria's Kurz-EU Row Over Vaccines Smokescreen For Corruption Scandal - EU Lawmaker

The latest demarche from Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who threatened to block the European Commission from getting 100 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine unless Vienna secured a greater share of the delivery, is nothing short of attempt to divert Austrian public attention from a corruption scandal simmering in his government, Roman Haider, an EU lawmaker from Austria, told Sputnik on Thursday

ST. PETERSBURG (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th April, 2021) The latest demarche from Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who threatened to block the European Commission from getting 100 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine unless Vienna secured a greater share of the delivery, is nothing short of attempt to divert Austrian public attention from a corruption scandal simmering in his government, Roman Haider, an EU lawmaker from Austria, told Sputnik on Thursday.

The Austrian government has been rocked by a political corruption scandal involving private text messages between Kurz and his inner circle, showing a possible link between the party donations and political decisions taken at the time of the coalition of Austrian People's Party and Freedom Party of Austria (OVP-FPO).

"This is just a distraction from his corruption allegations. He is in big trouble. Kurz distracts from his party's corruption troubles by playing hard balls with the EU," Haider said.

In late March, Kurz demanded during the EU leaders' summit that Austria receive extra doses despite vaccine supply shortfalls in the European bloc. The 100 million doses were initially expected to be delivered by the end of 2021, but the US pharmaceutical company said it could only deliver 10 million before June 30.

The announcement sparked a spat among the EU nations due to the agreed population-based formula.

Austria argued that the new vaccine procurement required unanimous approval from all EU member states since the deal needed a sign-off from the bloc's vaccine steering board on the basis of intergovernmental consensus. Many EU countries, however, believed that Vienna did not have the legal power to block the deal.

"Austria didn't order its full share of vaccines in the first round and now Kurz is claiming for more than Austria's rightful share," Haider said.

Austria's immunization campaign, launched in late December 2020, includes three vaccines that have so far been approved in the EU, namely the ones developed by US pharma giants Pfizer and Moderna, and UK drugmaker AstraZeneca.

On Wednesday, Kurz said that Austria could register Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine at the national level if the European Medicines Agency's approval process dragged on.