The European Council agrees that the EU must insist on the agreements reached with pharmaceutical companies on the quantities and deliveries of vaccines against coronavirus, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Friday.

“We have asked the European Commission president to insist in talks with Pfizer and Moderna, and hopefully soon with AstraZeneca as well, on the agreed quantities of vaccine and dynamics of delivery so that people can be vaccinated as soon as possible,” Plenkovic said at a press conference in Zagreb following a virtual conference of the European Council on the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday night.

Croatia started administering the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine after Christmas, while Moderna’s vaccine arrived last week and the initial shipment was sent to the earthquake-devastated Petrinja area. The European Medicines Agency is expected to approve AstraZeneca’s vaccine on 29 January.

“It is fascinating that processes that otherwise take 10 years were finalised within a year and that we, not just Croatia but the EU and all countries in the world as well, were able to get a vaccine for a new disease so quickly,” Plenkovic said.

He said that many EU leaders had expressed concern about new strains of the coronavirus, including a more contagious one in the United Kingdom.