EU greenlights COVID-19 vaccine after agency gives safety OK

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gives a press statement after the European Medicines Agency gave the green light to European countries to start Covid-19 vaccinations in the coming days, after a regulatory approval for the use of a shot jointly developed by US company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, in Brussels, on December 21, 2020. | Getty

AMSTERDAM — The European Union on Monday gave official approval for the coronavirus vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer to be put onto the market across the 27-nation bloc.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the commission “took the decision to make available for European citizens the first COVID-19 vaccine. We granted conditional market authorization.”

The commission, the EU’s executive arm, gave the greenlight just hours after the European Medicines Agency said the shot meets safety and quality standards. Brussels had been expected to require two or three days to endorse the market authorization move.

Deliveries of the vaccine had been penciled in to start this coming Saturday, with inoculations beginning across the EU between Dec. 27-29.