The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for mass vaccinations. The first doses are already on their way to the UK with the first vaccinations penned for next week. Speaking on BBC Radio 5 live on Thursday, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van Tam said he did not think the US or European regulators would be many days behind the UK. Approvals elsewhere, he said, were probably "a matter of days" away. With the UK having given its approval for a vaccine, are nations now under pressure to follow suit? How have European countries responded? The European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is in charge of approving the vaccine in the EU, defended its time frame in a statement. It said it had the "most appropriate" method to approve the vaccine. Before deciding on whether to approve a vaccine, the EMA studies data from lab studies and large clinical trials. "These are essential elements to ensure a high level of protection to citizens during the course of a mass vaccination campaign," the statement said. Under EU law, countries can evoke emergency powers to temporarily approve a vaccine in the event of a pandemic. The UK, still a member of the EMA, was able to approve the vaccine under this rule, despite suggestions from ministers that Brexit had enabled the approval. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said on Wednesday that the UK had been able to approve the vaccine because it had "the best regulators". A European Commission spokesperson hit back, telling reporters: "We are of course absolutely convinced that the regulators in the UK are very good but we are definitely not in the game of comparing regulators across countries nor on commenting on claims as to who is better. "This is not a football competition. We are talking about the life and the health of people. We have in the EU a very developed system - which by the way still applies to the UK - in order to approve the authorisation of medical products, vaccines and to place them on the market." The EMA has said it will meet by 29 December at the latest with a vaccine rollout expected within days of that date. Germany's health minister, Jens Spahn, said despite having the fast-track option, the country had opted to wait for the EMA in order to help boost confidence in the safety of the vaccine. "The idea is not that we're the first, but the idea is to have safe and effective vaccines in the pandemic and that we can create confidence and nothing is more important than confidence with respect to vaccines," he told a news conference. "We have member states, including Germany, who could have issued such an emergency authorisation if we'd wanted to. But we decided against this and what we opted for was a common approach to move forward together." Elsewhere, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the government to simplify procedures for state registration of some medicines, in order to speed up approval of a vaccine. In August, authorities approved the country's Sputnik V vaccine before Phase 3 trials had even begun. The trial, which involved 40,000 volunteers, has concluded but the result has not been made public. Mr Putin has told authorities to start immunising people at risk from next week.