Prepared syringes at the Brussels Expo Covid-19 Vaccination Center in Brussels, Belgium, on Friday, March 5, 2021.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty images
LONDON – The rollout of the coronavirus vaccine in Europe is back in the spotlight after the Italian government blocked a shipment of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines to Australia.
The EU is struggling to distribute Covid-19 shots across the 27 member region and is lagging behind other advanced economies in the number of vaccinations per citizen. There are complaints that regulators are too slow to approve vaccines, there are manufacturing and supply problems and national red tape hampering the process.
But new questions surfaced on Thursday as Italy became the first EU country to use the bloc’s new regulations that allow it to stop exports when needed. As a result of the move, approximately 250,000 doses of the vaccine were shipped from the factory in Anagni, Italy, to Australia.
The roll-out of vaccines in Europe “will be a tough battle,” Daniel Gros, director of the Center for European Policy Studies think tank in Brussels, Belgium, told CNBC on Friday.
How the EU got here
The EU announced new rules at the end of January that allow European member states, where coronavirus shots are produced, to ban their exports in case the pharmaceutical company involved fails to comply with pre-existing contracts with the bloc.
The EU and AstraZeneca have been at odds since the drugmaker was unable to get as many shots as the block expected for the first quarter. There are also doubts about the number of photos the company will be able to provide in the second quarter.
The EU is being roasted for something the US is doing in a more radical form.
Daniel Gros
director of CEPS
AstraZeneca’s CEO, Pascal Soriot, said late last month that the vaccine shortage was due to yield issues and that his company was working around the clock to increase production.
French Health Minister Olivier Veran said Friday morning that France could replicate Italy’s move. German Health Minister Jens Spahn has said there is no reason so far to stop shipping vaccines produced in Germany to other countries, Reuters said.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said last month that about 95% of the EU-made vaccines exported since the end of January have been manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, as both companies respected their agreement with the EU .
At the time, she also said the US and UK had systems to block exports of these vaccines.
Europe is being ‘roasted’ for something that others do
“The EU is being roasted for something the US is doing in a more radical form,” CEPS’s Gros also said.
“The amount was small. But, as usual, people are jumping on symbols. The US doesn’t have the problem of having to stop vaccines at the border because no one would even think of trying to export anything from the US,” he added. to it.
In early December, President Donald Trump ordered in an executive order that the US should only export domestically produced vaccines once it was determined that sufficient doses were available to inoculate the US population.
“Having determined that an adequate supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses exists for all Americans who choose to be vaccinated … will facilitate international access for allies to US government COVID-19 vaccines,” partners and others, as appropriate and in accordance with applicable law, ” the order reads.
Shipping to Australia has been blocked because the country is not on the EU list of vulnerable countries. The EU regulation exempts distribution to poorer countries from blocking by the member states.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told a news conference Friday that the country’s vaccine program would “continue unabated,” adding that the shipment in question was not one they had counted on for the rollout.
Australia has reportedly asked the European Commission to review Italy’s decision to block the transmission, but Morrison admitted that he understood why there would be a high level of concern in Italy and across Europe.
“We must not forget that the EU is supplying vaccines to the south of the world while preventing them from being shipped to Australia,” Alberto Alemanno, professor of European law at HEC Paris, told CNBC on Friday.
He added that the “EU Export Control Regulation embodies the EU’s legitimate attempt to acquire some sovereign autonomy.”