BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Union on Friday introduced tougher rules for the export of COVID-19 vaccines that could affect shipments to countries like the United Kingdom, deepening a dispute with London over scarce supplies of potentially life-saving shots.
But amid outrage in Northern Ireland and the UK, the European Commission made it clear that the new measure will not lead to controls on the shipment of vaccines produced in the 27-country bloc to the small area that is part of the United Kingdom. Kingdom bordering on EU member Ireland.
Under the post-Brexit deal, EU products should still be able to travel unimpeded from the block to Northern Ireland.
“While finalizing this measure, the Commission will ensure that the Ireland / Northern Ireland Protocol remains unaffected,” the EU’s executive arm said in a statement late Friday.
Amid a dispute with Anglo-Swedish drug company AstraZeneca, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and UK leader Boris Johnson received an unexpected phone call in which the UK Prime Minister “expressed serious concern about the possible impact of the steps taken the EU has taken. today about vaccine exports, ”read a statement from the UK government.
The EU has unveiled its plans to tighten rules for the export of coronavirus vaccines produced in the bloc amid fears that some of the doses it has received from AstraZeneca could be diverted elsewhere. The measure could be used to block shipments to many non-EU countries and ensure that any export company based in the EU must first submit its plans to national authorities.
The UK and Northern Ireland governments immediately lashed out at the move, saying the bloc had invoked an emergency clause in its divorce agreement with Britain to introduce controls on exports to Northern Ireland. Goods are believed to flow freely between the EU and Northern Ireland under special arrangements for the UK region designed to protect the peace process on the island of Ireland.
But the EU later said it was not invoking Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which allowed either side to set aside parts of their deal.
“The Commission is not introducing the safeguard clause,” she said in its statement, adding that the restrictive regulations have yet to be finalized and will not be adopted before Saturday.
The telephone conversation between Von der Leyen and Johnson lightened somewhat what was quickly becoming a diplomatic flashpoint.
“We agreed on the principle that there should be no restrictions on the export of vaccines by companies where they fulfill contractual responsibilities,” von der Leyen said in a statement.
The EU reached out to AstraZeneca this week after the company said it would deliver just 31 million doses of vaccine initially, instead of the 80 million doses it had hoped to deliver. Brussels claimed that AstraZeneca would deliver even less, only a quarter of the doses due between January and March – and member states started to complain.
The European Commission is concerned that doses intended for Europe may have been diverted from an AstraZeneca plant on the continent to the UK, where two other sites are located. The EU also wants doses to be made available to European citizens at two locations in Great Britain.
“The UK has legally binding agreements with vaccine suppliers and does not expect the EU, as a friend and ally, to do anything to interfere with the fulfillment of these contracts,” the UK said.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot told German newspaper Die Welt this week that the British government contributed to the development of the vaccine, which is being developed jointly with the University of Oxford, and that it signed the contract three months ahead of the EU. Soriot said that under the UK contract, vaccines produced at UK sites must go to the UK first.
In order to address similar disputes and allay fears that vaccines could be diverted, the Commission has introduced measures to tighten the rules for the export of shots produced in EU countries. The “transparency mechanism for vaccines exports” will in any case be used until the end of March to control shipments to non-EU countries.
The EU insisted this is not an export ban, although it can be used to block shipments to the UK or many other non-EU countries. Many poorer countries and close neighbors are exempt.
Officials said it is to make sure EU member states get the photos they bought from producers. The World Health Organization criticized the new EU export rules as “not useful”.
Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and other WHO officials warned of supply chain disruptions that could ripple around the world and potentially slow the fight against COVID-19.
The “Advanced Purchase Agreement” with the EU was signed in August before the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was properly tested. The European Medicines Agency approved the vaccine Friday, making it the third to be approved for use by EU countries.
Previously, the 27-nation bloc and AstraZeneca made public a heavily edited version of their vaccine agreement that is at the heart of a dispute over the delivery schedule.
The contract, agreed last year by the European Commission and the drug manufacturer, allows EU member states to purchase 300 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, with an option for an additional 100 million doses. It is one of many contracts the EU executive has with vaccine manufacturers to get a total of more than 2 billion injections.
As part of an “advanced purchase agreement” with companies, the EU said it has invested EUR 2.7 billion ($ 3.8 billion), including EUR 336 million ($ 408 million) to finance production of AstraZeneca’s serum at four plants .
Much of the 41-page document that was made public was obscured, making it very difficult to determine which side is on the right. Specifically, details about the price of the vaccine were edited. The UK is thought to pay much more for the vaccine than EU countries.
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Associated Press writers Danica Kirka in London, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Thomas Adamson in Paris contributed to this report.