Mr. Thierry Breton:

I thank the Chairman. I have three minutes and will try to do my best.

On the Chairman's question, we know and appreciate the industrial landscape in Ireland is extremely important and pharmaceutical companies were present at our networking event. If there is any need, I am in personal contact with the Prime Minister. Sometimes it helps if we can have more information. I have a lot of support from the Government. The key is to say to the industry that we appreciate what it does. We will of course offer many companies the opportunity to be part of our strategy. We need to continue working on that.

On the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, we await the EMA assessment of the efficacy of the vaccine, which I have no doubt will arrive. I am not in charge of health and have no information from the EMA. Without Johnson & Johnson, we will have fewer vaccines in quarter 2 than hoped. I am confident that enough vaccines can be produced to reach our target of vaccinating 70% of the adult population by July. As the committee understands, we have some room for manoeuvre.

On the first question, I am confident that AstraZeneca will be able to deliver a reduced amount. I remind the committee that the figure went from 180 million in its first commitment to 170 million. These vaccines are of course included in our forecast. I am working on it every day. We have a very large and broad portfolio of vaccines, which makes me confident that we will be able to reach our 70% target.

I will say a word on the other vaccines. Soon five vaccines will have been accepted. I mentioned CureVac which, it is to be hoped, will be agreed on by the end of May or June. It takes a lot of time to be accepted because we are extremely strict with our health regulations. We do not have anything against anybody. We are professionals and it is because of that that we do not try to play politics with vaccines. It is always a bad idea to do that.

Sputnik is another vaccine and I have a lot of respect for Russian scientists, especially in the Gamaleya Research Institute, which is very well known. Like every other vaccine, they need to apply to the EMA, which was done a few weeks ago. The process usually takes a few months because it is very serious and advocates for everyone. It will take a few months for the vaccine to be analysed and approved by the EMA. It could then take another few months - sometimes it takes between ten and 12 months - to be able to have the facility to manufacture it. We know that all our facilities have been transformed over the past ten to 12 months to be able to follow the needs of our fellow citizens. If the Sputnik vaccine is approved by the EMA, it will enter into an industrial process phase, which will take another ten months. When the facility is up and running to manufacture a vaccine, it takes between 70 and 100 days to do so. Every preorder for Sputnik or any other vaccine cannot be delivered before the end of this year. There is another story for all of us. We said, of course, that we welcome everyone but we know our priorities. Sinovac is the Chinese vaccine. There were some difficulties with it in Chile, for example.

I discussed IT. There is absolutely no issue. It is something we need to discuss, but it is a matter of priorities. We believe, along with my colleague, High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell Fontelles, that there will come a time when we will need to appeal the decision. As we said in life, and especially in such a fight, it is a case of everything at a time. I thank the Chairman and the members.