Russia’s Sputnik Covid vaccine may never be approved in EU, says Italian PM

Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine may never be approved by the European Union, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Friday, as he also cast doubts on the effectiveness of China's Sinovac jab.

Published: 25 June 2021 16:20 CEST

Russia's Sputnik Covid vaccine may never be approved in EU, says Italian PM

Mario Draghi arrives on the second day of an EU summit in Brussels on June 25th. Photo: Aris Oikonomou/POOL AFP

“Sputnik… has not yet managed to obtain and perhaps will never have the approval of EMA (the European Medicines Agency),” Draghi said in Brussels.

In his comments, Draghi said there was a need for a “strengthening and maybe also a reform of EMA” to avoid a repeat of recent “considerable confusion” on vaccines.

He referred to a “certain discrepancy in pronouncements” over the safety of Covid-19 vaccines between EMA and national medicine bodies.

The EMA had been expected to conclude its review of the Russian jab and issue a decision in May or June. However, approval was delayed because the makers missed a June 10 deadline to submit data, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, “the Chinese vaccine, which never applied (for EMA approval) has shown to be inadequate, look at the experience in Chile,” he added.

Chile has relied heavily on the Chinese Sinovac jab for its immunisation campaign, but health authorities in the country have questioned how effective it is against new virus strains, and are also now considering adding a third dose to boost protection.

Draghi was speaking at the end of a two-day European Union summit, in which he said leaders had a general discussion on the state of play of coronavirus.

“The pandemic is not over, we are not yet out of it,” the Italian leader said, pointing to the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant in Britain.

In Italy too, outbreaks of the more transmissible variant have been detected, the country’s health authorities confirmed on Friday.

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The strike comes after Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama — who is close to Meloni — called a top RAI editor to complain about a television report into Italy’s controversial migration deal with his country.

The Usigrai trade union called the strike from May 6 to May 7 saying talks with management had failed to address their concerns.

It cited numerous issues, including staff shortages and contract issues, but in first place was “the suffocating control over journalistic work, with the attempt to reduce RAI to a megaphone for the government”.

It had already used that phrase to object to what critics say is the increasing influence over RAI by figures close to Prime Minister Meloni, who leads Italy’s most right-wing government since World War II.

However, another union of RAI journalists, Unirai, said they would not join what they called a “political” strike, defending the return to “pluralism” at the broadcaster.

Funded in part by a licence fee and with top managers long chosen by politicians, RAI’s independence has always been an issue of debate.

But the arrival in power of Meloni — leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, who formed a coalition with Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party and the late Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia — redoubled concerns.

Tensions erupted at the weekend amid accusations RAI censored a speech by a leading writer criticising Meloni ahead of Liberation Day on April 25, when Italians mark the defeat of Fascism and the Nazis at the end of World War II.

Both RAI’s management and Meloni have denied censorship, and the premier posted the text of the monologue on her social media.

In another twist, Albania’s premier confirmed Thursday he called senior RAI editor Paolo Corsini about an TV report on Sunday into Italy’s plans to build two migration processing centres on Albanian territory.

Rama told La Stampa newspaper the report was “biased” and contained “lies” – adding that he had not raised the issue with Meloni.

The Report programme claimed the costs of migrant centres, which are under construction, were already “out of control” and raised questions about criminals benefiting from the project.