Source: European Parliament
As the Commission pointed out in its reply to Written Question E-001843/2023, the objective of the EU Vaccines Strategy[1] is to ensure the supply of vaccines to the Member States on an equitable basis, at the scale needed and within the earliest possible timeframes.
The EU Vaccines Strategy has allowed EU citizens to receive primary and booster vaccinations, saving millions of lives and mitigating the impact of the pandemic upon social and economic life in times of high uncertainty.
The Commission supported the Member States in the negotiations with vaccine suppliers and in the implementation of the contracts.
However, the purchasing Member States are responsible for the deployment of their vaccination strategies and the utilisation of the vaccines.
In interpreting figures published by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), it is important to highlight that medical events occurring in vaccinated people are not necessarily caused by the COVID-19 vaccine.
EMA and national authorities evaluate data on reported events to determine whether there is any signal indicating causality and any need to act.
Therefore, the figure of fatal cases reported in the EudraVigilance[2] database does not mean that those deaths have been caused by a COVID-19 vaccine .
In very exceptional cases, deaths have been confirmed to be caused by a COVID-19 vaccine, for example due to thrombosis with thrombocytopenia for which warnings have been included in the product information.
On the issue of the possible liability of officials of the Commission for actions carried out during their functions, the rules applicable to such liability are set out in the relevant provisio ns of the Treaties.
- [1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52020DC0245
- [2] The system for managing and analysing information on suspected adverse reactions to medicines which have been authorised or being studied in clinical trials in the European Economic Area (EEA).
