Hungarian Foreign Minister Calls EU's Non-Recognition of Sputnik V Politically Motivated

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The European Union's refusal to recognise the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus is clearly politically driven, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said on Friday.

"I do believe that the fact that Sputnik V has not been recognised by the international organisations is a purely political issue. When I talk to western European colleagues, they always tell me that they all know that the Russian scientific community is outstanding, the Russian medical solutions are successful and that the Russian vaccines are safe and effective. But it is being a political issue, most of them tell me on [one-on-one] basis, not officially", Szijjarto told RT broadcaster in an interview.

The foreign minister added that over 6 million Hungarians have been vaccinated with six different types of vaccines including Sputnik, stressing that all the vaccines have proven to be safe and efficient.

"I can tell you that none of the vaccines are worse than others… a bit less than 1 million Hungarians have been vaccinated by Sputnik, including myself, and Sputnik has contributed a lot to our successful vaccination campaign", Szijjarto said.

The foreign minister added that there are areas, where politicising is inappropriate, but a pragmatic and practical approach is required, including the health and energy security of the population.

"I think that one of the reasons why the European Union is weakening recently is that there are too many issues being over-politicised and over ideologised. [Among] the people in Hungary and in Europe, there is a demand for looking at issues on a practical and pragmatic basis", Szijjarto stressed, expressing hope that Sputnik V vaccine will soon be recognised.

In early October, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko stated that all barriers to the WHO recognition of the Sputnik V vaccine have been removed, with some administrative procedures pending. Since March, Sputnik V has been undergoing a review process at the European Medicines Agency, which authorises centralised use of medicines in the EU.

Sputnik V vaccine so far was approved in 71 countries worldwide with an overall population exceeding 4 billion people. According to the vaccine developers, Sputnik V effectiveness rate is 97.6% based on analysis of data from 3.8 million vaccinated Russians.