Czech Republic, Austria and Slovenia excluded from EU vaccine redistribution agreement

The Czech Republic, Austria and Slovenia have been excluded from an EU move to provide millions of extra vaccines to hard-hit member countries, ending a bitter row over vaccine supplies.

A coalition of 24 EU countries on Thursday approved a “solidarity” mechanism that will provide 2.8 million additional doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine to five member states: Estonia, Latvia, Croatia, Slovakia, and Bulgaria.

The Czech Republic, Austria and Slovenia, which consider the new redistribution mechanism unfair, refused to take part in the deal.

According to the news site Politico, the Czech Republic lost out the most by adamantly opposing the Portuguese proposal, according to which it would have received tens of thousands of additional vaccines.