EU countries cannot negotiate separate vaccine deals - EU chief

EU countries are not allowed to negotiate separate vaccine deals with pharmaceutical companies in parallel to the efforts of the European Union as a whole, the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.

"The only framework we are negotiating in is as 27. We do this together and no member state on this legal binding basis is allowed to negotiate in parallel or to have a contract in parallel," von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels.

"The whole portfolio covers 2.3 billion doses of vaccines so this is more than enough to vaccinate the whole European population," she said.