Photographer: Alessia Pierdomenico / Bloomberg
Photographer: Alessia Pierdomenico / Bloomberg
The European Union will assess all export requests AstraZeneca Plc vaccines to the UK are “very serious” and will likely reject them until the drug manufacturer meets its delivery commitments to the bloc, a senior EU official said.
In response to UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace’s comments on Sunday that the EU must honor its vaccine contracts, the Brussels official said it is not the EU’s responsibility to help Astra fulfill its commitments to the UK.
The EU has its own contracts with the company that are currently not respected, and all vaccines and ingredients produced in European factories will be provisionally reserved for local deliveries, the official said, who asked not to be named because of the decisions in treatment. and have not been made public.
The EU and the UK have been at odds with vaccine exports since Astra told Brussels it would not be able to deliver the promised shots to the bloc. The feud is becoming increasingly toxic, with the two sides blaming each other for export curbs and nationalism, and some fear that the feud could pose a risk to the fragile post-Brexit trade relationship negotiated last December.
The EU must honor its vaccine contracts, even as the slow rollout puts pressure on governments there, Wallace told Sky News.
“The committee knows deep down that this would be counterproductive,” he said. “They are under enormous political pressure at the European Commission. It would damage EU relations worldwide if they renounced these contracts. “
The EU official said there are no outstanding requests for UK exports from Astra’s production facility in the Netherlands, but if such a request is made, it will likely be denied. More than 10 million doses have been exported from the EU to the UK, although officials have said that very few of these shipments contain the Astra vaccine and its ingredients.
“In principle, the Netherlands will allow exports to continue until the European Commission says otherwise,” said a Dutch spokesman on Sunday. “In order to avoid a tipping point where the Commission is indeed taking further steps in cooperation with Member States, it is of the utmost importance that Brussels, London and AstraZeneca quickly reach an agreement on the vaccines produced by the company in facilities under both fall. contracts. “
– With the help of Suzi Ring