Austrian chancellor: Some EU states have secret vaccine contracts

Kurz’s comments denied by EU spokesman, who downplayed the claims of backroom deals.

Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Friday suggested that some European countries may have signed “secret contracts” with vaccine companies to receive more vaccines than they were entitled to based on the European Union rules. EU members have agreed that vaccines should be distributed among countries based on population size, but Kurz said after comparing total procurement between member states, it became clear that “deliveries do not follow the per capita quota system”. “There are clues that point to so-called bazaars where additional agreements between member states and pharmaceutical companies were made,” Kurz said.