The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, affirmed yesterday that the Government does not rule out that in the future the Russian vaccine Sputnik against COVID-19 could be used in the European Union and, therefore, in Spain.
In an interview granted to La Sexta, Gonzalez Laya reminded that it is the Community institutions which are in charge of verifying that “the medical requirements of efficacy and efficiency” are fulfilled and pointed out that if a producer is “capable of developing a vaccine which fulfills these requirements” then it could enter the Community market.
The minister insisted that this is a decision that is the responsibility of the European Medicines Agency, and stressed that, in any case, the important thing is to guarantee that the vaccines that reach European and Spanish citizens “are effective in protecting them from the virus and that through this immunization we can control the escalation of contagions”.
In addition, Gonzalez Laya said that the Executive is considering adopting in the next few days measures to stop the arrival in Spain of new strains of the coronavirus which are appearing in other countries such as Brazil or South Africa, after having already done the same with the United Kingdom, with which air and maritime connections are suspended.
He also said that Europe has the “clear idea” that it is necessary to avoid closing borders within the Schengen area as happened during the first wave, but at the same time it is clear that to control the spread of the virus “we must also restrict mobility within the European area”.
Thus, he referred in the case of Spain to the limitations on mobility with both Portugal and France. “We know that this does not please our citizens, especially those who live in border areas, we understand their uneasiness but we ask them to help us with their responsible behavior and patience so that together we can control the spread of this pandemic,” he said.
