Leaders of EU member states on Thursday called for distributing an additional 10 million doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine among member countries "in the spirit of solidarity".

In a joint statement adopted after a virtual summit, the leaders called on EU ambassadors to resolve the issue of allocating 10 million doses.

“We invite the Committee of Permanent Representatives to address the issue of the speed of deliveries of vaccines when allocating the 10 million BioNTech-Pfizer accelerated doses in the second quarter of 2021 in the spirit of solidarity,” the statement of EU leaders read.

In the second quarter, BioNTech-Pfizer will deliver 10 million doses of the vaccine, which were normally scheduled for delivery in the second half of the year.

The additional doses could alleviate to an extent the imbalance in the distribution of the vaccines between member countries that occurred due to the problems with AstraZeneca, which will deliver only a third of the promised doses in the first half of the year.

That situation has put the countries that have order the largest quantity from AstraZeneca, including Croatia, in a bad position, as they gave up on the quantity of doses from other manufacturers they could procure in accordance with the proportional population distribution key.

Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, said on Twitter that “Croatia wants the 10 million doses to be allocated in a spirit of solidarity, so that the countries that were supposed to receive more doses from AstraZeneca could get more Pfizer vaccines, and thus be compensated for the shortage that could not have been foreseen due to AstraZeneca’s slower production and distribution”.

“The epidemiological situation remains serious, also in the light of the challenges posed by new strains. Restrictions… must therefore be upheld for the time being,” they added.