Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel defend EU vaccine approach

German chancellor concedes that 'production capacities are not as large as we had imagined'

• 

  A medical worker helps a woman take a PCR test at a Covid-19 testing station set up in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, Germany. Getty Images

• 

  People walk along an almost empty street in Berlin, Germany. The lockdown state governments launched in December has been continued into February. Getty Images

• 

  Protesters chant slogans, on top of a van during a demonstration in Lille, northern France. French unions called for strikes and protests around the country to demand more government aid for those struggling financially because of the pandemic. AP Photo

• 

  Protesters march during a demonstration in Marseille, southern France. AP Photo

• 

  People protest in Paris to highlight the current economic and cultural difficulties being experienced across France. AFP

• 

  An election worker prepares ballot boxes and PPE to be delivered at polling stations in Barcelona, Spain. Spain's Catalonia regional elections will be held on February 14. AP Photo

• 

  A mortuary worker disinfests a coffin carrying the body of a person who died of Covid-19 in Girona, Spain. Spain's health ministry said Wednesday that the nation has surpassed 60,000 fatalities. AP Photo

• 

  A woman takes images of empty and moored canal cruise boats docked in Amsterdam, Netherlands. AP Photo

France and Germany’s leaders defended the European Union’s approach to delivering vaccines to member states despite its sluggish start.

Anger is building in the bloc and it lags behind inoculation campaigns in Israel, the UK and US. The EU is charged with procuring the vaccine and distributing it to its 27 countries, which then carry out their own national vaccination programmes.

"I fully support the European approach," French President Emmanuel Macron said after virtual talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"What would people say if countries like France and Germany were competing with each other on vaccines? It would be a mess and counterproductive," he added.

Ms Merkel, who has repeatedly defended sticking with the EU approach, conceded that "production capacities are not as large as we had imagined".

But she insisted "the basic decision to order together as the European Union was and is right".

The German leader said vaccine makers and the EU were doing all they could to speed up the process.

"But producing vaccines is not something that can be done from one day to the next," Ms Merkel added. "These are complicated processes."

Mr Macron said the EU had been surprised by how quickly vaccines were developed.

"Nobody could have known that we were going to have safe vaccines so quickly," he said.

The European Union's vaccination campaign lags behind those in Israel, the UK and US. EPA

On Friday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also defended the EU's response, saying countries operating on their own could move more quickly, like a “speedboat”.

"I'm aware that a country might be a speedboat and the EU more a tanker. But this is the strength of the EU,” she said.

"If we conclude a contract, we need another five days for the member states to say, 'yes' – and these are five days, five working days,” Ms von der Leyen added.