ATHENS — Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed his satisfaction on Thursday during a cabinet meeting that the European Commission is more resolutely promoting the negotiations with the vaccine companies in order to overcome the problem created by the observance of the contracts. He also referred to the way the situation is handled by the government, to the epidemiological developments, the economy and the issuance of the 10-year bond.

"I am glad that the European Commission has listened to the urgings of many heads of states and governments and is now negotiating harder, more decisively, more rigorously with the large vaccine companies. These companies need to understand that to the extent that European money has been used in the research of these vaccines, they need to honour the contracts they have signed with the European Union," he said.

He added that the EU is "a significant power and must be able to exert the necessary influence or even pressure on large companies to be consistent with the delivery timetable to which they were committed."

Referring to the epidemiological developments, Mitsotakis noted that the government's response to a possible deterioration of the situation "will always be dynamic."

"We are on constant alert to intervene when needed. It is not a politics of 'wait-and-see', it is just the opposite: we see so that we know exactly what we are doing," the prime minister stressed.

"We open activities when the cases subside, we limit them when they re-ignite. We keep the necessary balance between the needs of public health and the national economy, deciding every week according to the data," Mitsotakis explained.

The prime minister stressed that Greece is using all the vaccine doses it receives, without waste, and proceeds with the vaccination campaign based on the strategy it has formed. As to date more than 221,000 vaccinations have been done.

"Let me say it again, the more vaccines come to our country, the more vaccinations will be done. In fact, Greece and Canada are among the countries that today have to show a very positive statistic and this is due to the fact that we have minimal total vaccine losses," he stressed.

Referring to the economic issues and yesterday's issuance of a 10-year bond, the prime minister underlined that Greece successfully completed a 10-year syndicated bond issue raising 3.5 billion euros from the market. Mitsotakis underlined that the money will be allocated based on the needs of the citizens.