The corona pandemic is widening the gap between Eastern and Western Europe. While third-party vaccinations are already being distributed in Germany and France, many in Bulgaria and Romania reject the injection.
Europe is over the mountain. One could think so. More than 70 percent of adults in the EU are fully vaccinated, a top figure worldwide. Booster vaccinations are now being distributed in Germany, France and Spain and there is no longer any talk of a further lockdown. But the picture does not apply to the whole continent by a long way.
Many Eastern European countries are far below the average when it comes to vaccination rates. While in Belgium, Denmark and Portugal 80 percent of the adult population are already fully vaccinated, the figure in Croatia is just 32 percent – in Bulgaria it is only around 20 percent. “Europe’s Covid-19 experience is a story of two pandemics – and the differences could haunt the continent for many years to come,” warns Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev in one.
Vaccination scissors between East and West
At the beginning of the year, only a few would have thought such a vaccination success in Western Europe even possible. The European vaccination campaign started slowly at first. Many countries complained about delivery bottlenecks and the EU argued with the vaccine manufacturers about responsibilities. Nevertheless, the EU has always argued that smaller, poorer countries in particular would have difficulties procuring vaccination doses on their own if the European Commission had not secured the order for everyone.
Despite the bumpy start, the vaccination campaign in Europe picked up speed. 22 of the 27 EU Member States have now fully vaccinated more than half of their population. Spain is already approaching the 90 percent. Countries like France and Germany are in the process of distributing millions of booster vaccinations. Italy has only just introduced the 3G rule in the workplace and thanks to an excellent vaccination rate, Denmark was the first EU country to lift all its corona restrictions.
Meanwhile, many people in Eastern Europe are still waiting for their very first vaccination. In particular, in countries such as Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania, vaccination rates have fallen sharply in recent weeks. Together with the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, they also complain about the highest Covid mortality rate in the entire EU. Outside the Union, it looks even grimmer: only 23 percent of the total population of Albania are fully vaccinated, in Georgia it is eleven percent and in Armenia three percent. “The story we hear about the pandemic from France, Germany or the Netherlands is very different from the one we hear in Bulgaria or Poland,” says political scientist Krastev in his report published by (ECFR), to the point.
Critical situation in Bulgaria and Romania
In many Eastern European countries, vaccination skepticism, misinformation and mistrust of politics and the measures imposed now predominate. Bulgaria currently has the lowest vaccination rate within the EU and at the same time reports the most Covid deaths per capita. “The last place in vaccinations puts us first in terms of mortality,” confirmed Health Minister Stoycho Katsarov at the beginning of September. To curb the increase in new infections and deaths, the government last week imposed new restrictions on gastronomy and culture.
For Vessela Tcherneva, deputy director of the, political instability in particular has plunged the country into a vaccination crisis. It was not until Thursday that the formation of a new government failed again in Bulgaria – the third elections within a year are due in November. “The political elite took no responsibility to start a nationwide vaccination campaign,” criticized the political scientist in an interview with the “”. The head of the office in the Bulgarian capital Sofia also points out structural problems. In Eastern Europe, the anti-vaccination mood is rooted in a deep distrust of government institutions. This could explain why governments here have been reluctant to enforce vaccination mandates like in France and Italy, says Tcherneva.
In the neighboring country of Romania, which initially started vaccinations quickly, the campaign has now almost come to a standstill. Access is not the problem, stresses Valeriu Gheorghita, head of the vaccination campaign. “We have fixed vaccination centers, mobile vaccination centers, drive-in vaccination centers.” And yet more than half of the people in rural areas have not yet been vaccinated. The vaccination skepticism is particularly high there and corona myths are widespread. Many people in villages and small towns oppose the vaccinations because they mistakenly believe that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus.
Members of the Roma, who make up around ten percent of the population of Romania and Bulgaria, are even less willing to be vaccinated, according to the medical journal “”. Activists in both countries have criticized their governments for not getting the group involved enough in their vaccination efforts.
“A Story of Two Pandemics”
Europe is at a turning point. Another corona wave in autumn and winter could jeopardize the success story of the summer and drive up the number of infections and deaths, especially in the east. The World Health Organization (WHO) is also warning of this – and predicts that the slowdown in national vaccination campaigns and the lifting of restrictive measures could cause 230,000 people in Europe to die of Covid-19 by December.
“We cannot afford to protect parts of Europe less, that makes us all more vulnerable,” stressed EU Health Commissioner Sella Kyriakides. The European Commission is already helping Eastern European governments in particular to combat false information about vaccinations. But since the member countries are responsible for their vaccination campaigns themselves, their influence is limited. “The European Commission did everything it could,” affirmed ECFR Deputy Director Tcherneva. “It can ensure that all EU citizens have access to vaccines, but it cannot force or pressure governments how to administer them.”
Sources: “”,, “”, with DPA
