Bundesministerium für Gesundheit, D-53107 Bonn                               Jens Spahn Federal Minister Her Excellency the Commissioner                                              Member of the German Parliament for Health and Food Safety                                           ADDRESS Rochusstraße 1, D-53123 Bonn Ms Stella Kyriakides                                          POSTAL ADDRESS 53107 Bonn TEL +49 (0)228 99 441-1003 FAX +49 (0)228 99 441-4907 - via email only - E-MAIL poststelle@bmg.bund.de Bonn, 17 June 2020 Dear Commissioner, Thank you for circulating the final draft agreement between the European Commission and the Member States on COVID-19 vaccines procurement. I am glad that the agreement foresees a tight cooperation between Member States and the European Commission and welcome the balanced approach for the steering board and negotiation group. Since we all agree that speed is of the essence I would like to express the need for swiftly setting up the steering board and negotiation group, with both the co-chairmanship and membership based on solid experience in negotiations and production capacities for vaccines. On this basis I would like to express my consent to the attached version and appoint Mr Thomas Müller, Head of Directorate Drugs, Medical Devices, Biotechnology at the Federal Ministry of Health, (1@bmg.bund.de) for the steering board. As member of the vaccine alliance we are interested to join the negotiation group. Looking forward to a fruitful cooperation. I remain, Yours sincerely, Enc.