EU on track for safe reopening: Top bloc official

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) - The EU is on track to safely reopen society after the COVID-19 pandemic, a top EU official said on Tuesday.

“It is undeniable that we have made great progress since May, we see cases and hospitalization on a downward trend,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, told journalists after an EU leaders’ summit.

She explained that over 300 million vaccines would have been delivered to member states by the end of this week and this number was expected to rise to 400 million by June.

According to von der Leyen, it means that the bloc is on track to reach its goal of vaccinating 70% of the adult population by the end of July.

“If we continue like this, we have confidence that we will be able to safely reopen our societies,” she said.

During the two-day summit, EU leaders agreed to donate 100 million vaccines by the end of 2021 through the World Health Organization’s COVAX mechanism to support low- and middle-income countries.

According to Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, the bloc would be willing to donate even more.

“Member states have expressed the views which lead us to believe that we actually go beyond that capacity to deliver 100 million doses to our partners,” he said at the news conference.