Government adopts decision to donate COVID-19 vaccine to Albania, North Macedonia

Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordan Grlić Radman on Thursday attended the 57th session of the Croatian Government.

The session saw the adoption of a decision to donate humanitarian aid to Albania and North Macedonia, consisting of 10,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine respectively.

'Albania and North Macedonia are suffering heavy fallout, overburdened health systems and vaccine shortages. The European Commission itself has highlighted countries in our immediate neighbourhood as a priority. In light of that, Croatia continues to show solidarity with our neighbours, and wants to help Albania and North Macedonia by donating vaccine,' said Grlić Radman.

The donation follows the guidelines of the EU mechanism for giving away vaccine to third countries and Croatia is among the first member states to implement bilateral donations. The donation will consist of previously procured vaccine that is currently being warehoused at the Croatian Institute of Public Health.

The Government also adopted a decision to form an interdepartmental working group for the preparation of Croatia's OECD accession. The group will coordinate the cooperation of Croatia's state administration bodies with the working bodies of the OECD with the aim of meeting the membership criteria.