Romania has received the official notice by which it is obliged to pay, within two months, over 3.4 billion lei to the Pfizer company, after losing in the first instance the trial regarding the anti-COVID 19 vaccines.
Alexandru Nazare, the Minister of Finance, stated on Facebook on Thursday that Romania is looking for a better solution than immediate full payment.
“The Pfizer case is one of the most difficult financial cases that Romania has to handle at the moment. Romania lost the case, and the payment amount is about 680 million euros, i.e. more than 3.4 billion lei. In budgetary terms, we are talking about almost 0.2% of GDP – a serious pressure in a year with great efforts to reduce the deficit. In addition, after losing the case, the interests flow daily: about 81,000 euros per day, that is, almost 2.5 million euros per month. I cannot go into the details of the negotiation with Pfizer. In a case of this size, any public statement can affect Romania’s position. What I can say is that, since the loss of the process, we are making continuous efforts to reduce its impact on the state budget and, consequently, on the citizens’ money“, Nazare wrote on his social media page.
“We are looking for a better solution than immediate full payment”
The minister specified that the Romanian authorities are in dialogue with the company’s representatives and collaborate both with the Ministry of Health and with European partners, including Poland and the European Commission.
“The goal is to reduce the consequences on the budget as much as possible. We are looking for a better solution than the immediate full payment: either through a formula that limits the budget pressure, or through medical products that the health system needs, instead of vaccines that are no longer necessary for Romania. We must, at the same time, maintain a level of realism. The negotiation is a difficult one, because it comes after an unfavorable verdict. We are doing everything related to us, but the result does not depend only on the Romanian side. This file shows how expensive a commitment can become without a correct assessment of the real needs. In 2021, we warned in writing that the excess doses can generate high costs for Romania. Today we must defend Romania in the appeal, limit the losses and protect the budget as much as possible.”the Minister of Finance also said.
The file is based on open litigation after Romania and Poland no longer fully respected the contracts for the purchase of vaccines, concluded during the pandemic.
A court in Brussels decided, in the first instance, to oblige the two states to pay large sums to Pfizer/BioNTech.
