Romania has all that it needs to accelerate vaccination campaign, says European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, in an interview.
The European official paid an official visit to Bucharest on Thursday to discuss the worrying situation generated by the COVID-19 pandemic with the political leaders in Romania.
The European Commissioner for the Internal Market also discussed about the manner in which the "fake news" phenomenon, which is not only happening in Romania, regarding vaccination can be controlled, about the 5G services and the European Cybersecurity Centre, while specifying that "Romania will play a very important role for us all in Europe" in the digital field.
AGERPRES: You have spoken today about the difficult decisions that Romania needs to make to improve vaccination rate. Can you give us an example of a difficult decision?
Thierry BRETON: I didn't say that it's a difficult decision; I said that, first, we are again in front of a new wave in this pandemic. It's called the fifth wave. And we know that in order to be able to fight this wave of the pandemic and to avoid to go to hospital, and unfortunately some of those who go to hospital die, because this is a very dangerous disease. We have a tool, we know what we have to do: we have to get vaccinated. And I, as the Commissioner in charge of the EU vaccination, at the EU level, I have worked extremely hard to make sure that we are able to provide enough vaccine for everybody in Europe - it's done - but also for the rest of the world. Europe today is the first vaccine producer, mRNA especially. We produce 300 million of doses every month. We are sending half of these to every single member state. So, Romania has everything. But, of course, we need now to make sure that everybody will be able to get vaccinated. Today, that's the case, almost everywhere in Europe, because we now have more than 75 percent of the population in Europe that is vaccinated, which is good, because now we have only 25 percent still at risk. And, of course, we need to reduce this number. But in Romania we are below 55 percent, so this is why there is a big risk and this is why I say we need to accelerate this vaccination campaign. This is of course the tool that we have now and it only depends on us.
AGERPRES: The next question is about fake news: in Romania, there is a real problem with the fake news regarding the vaccination. What can we do to counter this wave, this fake news wave?
Thierry BRETON: You know, I'm travelling almost every day, and we have fake news everywhere, not only in Romania. We have fake news in France, we have fake news in Germany, we have fake news in Lithuania, we have fake news in Spain, everywhere. We have fake news in Portugal, a lot of fake news, but in Portugal almost 90 percent of the population is vaccinated. So, I mean, we just have to educate, of course our children and the new generations, to tell them hey everything that is written on the Internet is not true. This is, by the way, why we are now proposing a new regulation, which is called the DSA [Digital Services Act - editor's note] to control the fake news, to control false information, disinformation, and this will be voted in the next month in the European Parliament, and it will be enough for everybody. But, I mean, it's very simple: just look at yourself - and I am speaking to the new generation - you know exactly that you can make the calculations; three billion inhabitants of our planet have already received the vaccine - the highest number ever - and there is no danger, no side effect, and it's working. So, I think it is important that you explain also to you parents, to your grandparents who maybe have questions and that is normal. But now, we have enough results to make sure it's working, and of course we cannot wait. Because not only winter is coming, but with the winter a new wave of pandemic. And, by the way, it's not only me who's saying that; it is the WHO, the World Health Organization which says that they were expecting that if Europe at large - including, by the way, Russia, where we know there was a big problem with vaccine acceptance - is not moving, we could have for all the continent an additional 500,000 deaths from COVID between now and February or March. So, we are informed, we know what could come, but we know also what we have to do, and the good news is that everything is in our hands, we have the tool, and we have the ammunition. This ammunition is the vaccine.
AGERPRES: I understand that this morning you had a meeting with UiPath, the first Romanian "unicorn." What were the topics of discussion, and is there a possibility of cooperation between European Commission and this firm or other firms that act in the field of cybersecurity or digitalization?
Thierry BRETON: Yes, I had a long discussion with the head of UiPath and, of course, I will reveal what we discussed, but I can tell you that, in general, we share the same vision, we have the same worries, how to accelerate the vaccination campaign, while observing at the same time everyone's believes. But here we are talking of science; it is the science which is important. And I think we all share the same view. We share also with the president [of UiPath - editor's note] the fact that we need to speed up - and the good news is that we know what we have to do. We spoke also on other subjects like defence, cybersecurity and it's true that I am extremely happy that we will have our cybersecurity centre from Europe here, in Bucharest - it has been decided. And I'm in charge, also, of digital and cybersecurity for the EU, so our centre will be here because we have so much competence, very good engineers in digital applications, and of course that's extremely important for the country, but also for Europe. So, we spoke about it at large because that's a very important topic, and, by the way, related to our discussion, it's important also because we know that in the digital sphere there's a lot of action, hybrid threats against us, not only disinformation; and we know also how to counterattack, and I am very happy that Romania will play a very important role for all of us in Europe.
AGERPRES: Regarding the same subject: when will this cybersecurity centre become operational in Romania?
Thierry BRETON: We are waiting now, I think the building will start and as soon as everything will be ready, we'll be ready to operate. So, I hope it will be the sooner the better. I don't have the dates yet, but we are ready, we are now pushing hard from both sides to make sure it will be available as soon as possible; for me, I hope it will be next year, but we will see when everything will be ready. We are pushing hard because there is a very strong need to increase again our, let's say not only monitoring, but also the defence of the cyberspace.
AGERPRES: One last question: Romania could start the auction for the 5G spectrum next year. What do you think of this timeline compared to other states? Is it late?
Thierry BRETON: I think 5G will bring a lot of new applications and services, and it's true for the Internet of Things (IoT), connected cars, digital manufacturing, a lot of new applications, not only for our life, - with 4G it was really good - but also for new applications including health, including medicines; so I think we should not wait too long. Some countries have already started, and I think it's good, so I'm happy to see that Romania is starting now, because the time of course takes some semesters, but the sooner it will be available, the better it will be for the transition for all our economic sectors, including industries, Agerpres informs.
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