BBC News Europe

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has discussed possible deliveries of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine to Austria, in a phone call with President Vladimir Putin.

Sputnik V has not been authorised by the EU’s European Medicines Agency, and Mr Kurz made it clear that such approval would be required first.

This month the respected medical journal The Lancet published results showing Sputnik V to be safe and over 90% effective against Covid-19.

Austrian specialists might in future co-produce Sputnik V with Russia, Mr Kurz said.

Russia is reported to be facing some production difficulties with Sputnik V, which is now in high demand worldwide. In the EU, only Hungary is using the Sputnik V jab. But tiny San Marino – not in the EU – has also taken delivery of it.

A judge in Paris has ruled that the corruption trial of a leading French industrialist should go ahead, despite his guilty plea.

The court decided that the case against Vincent Bolloré was so serious that it should not be settled, as agreed with prosecutors, with a $450,000 (£323,000) fine.

Mr Bolloré and two others had already accepted their guilt in bribing an official in Togo to win a contract to run the port of Lomé a decade ago.

The case against Mr Bolloré's conglomerate has been concluded with a fine of $15m.

georg-nuesslein.deCopyright: georg-nuesslein.de

A German conservative MP, Georg Nüsslein, is being investigated on suspicion of large-scale bribe-taking linked to the supply of Covid face masks. He has called the allegations “baseless”.

He is in the Bavarian CSU – a party allied to Chancellor Angela Merkel, but has now lost his parliamentary immunity. Investigators searched his Bundestag office and 12 properties in Germany and Liechtenstein linked to him.

Prosecutors suspect that he received large sums after lobbying the government on behalf of a supplier of medical masks. The money was not declared to the tax authorities, it is alleged.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Away from the UK's vaccine priorities now, here is an update on coronavirus news around the rest of Europe:

• The EU is still lagging far behind Israel, the US and UK in terms of people vaccinated, so EU leaders have vowed to speed up deliveries and sort out the bottlenecks. The 29m vaccinated so far is 6.4% of the EU’s population. The bloc has ordered more than 2bn doses, for a total population of about 450m. But it is also committed to sending vaccines to neighbouring non-EU countries
• AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said shortages of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine were down to the “very complex biological process that involves thousands of elements to track”. He told MEPs “we are working 24/7 to increase capacity and deliver on these commitments”
• The AstraZeneca vaccine is not being given to the over-65s in France, Belgium and Germany. The authorities cite insufficient data on its effectiveness in the oldest age group. French President Emmanuel Macron has controversially voiced doubts about the vaccine, but on Thursday he said he would gladly have the AstraZeneca jab, if that was offered to him
• Dr Klaus Reinhardt, president of the German Medical Association, described the AstraZeneca vaccine as “just as effective” as the Pfizer and Moderna ones. However, more than a million AstraZeneca doses are currently in storage in Germany, as vaccination progress remains slow
• The Czech Republic is set to tighten restrictions again, amid a big surge in cases. The plan is to extend a state of emergency to the end of March, banning all but essential travel between regions and closing schools, reimposing distance learning. The European countries with the highest Covid deaths per million people are: Belgium (1,900), Czech Republic (1,850), Slovenia (1,830) and the UK (1,790).