Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, threatened to block the export of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine if the block does not get the promised doses first.
“We have the option to suspend planned exports. This is our message to AstraZeneca: respect the contract with Europe before you start delivering.” [dosis] to other countries, ”the official said in an interview with the German press group Funke.
Von der Leyen said the British-Swedish laboratory AstraZeneca delivered only 30% of the 90 million vaccines promised to the EU in the first quarter of the year.
The company argued that it had production delays at its European factories, but European officials are making no secret of their outrage over AstraZeneca, which managed to deliver all of its promised doses to the UK.
On Wednesday, von der Leyen already threatened to tighten the conditions for the export of vaccines to producing countries, because of ‘reciprocity’ and ‘proportionality’.
“All options are on the table,” said the official.
“We are ready to use any tool we need to achieve this, and to ensure that Europe has a fair share,” he added.
The President of the European Commission recalled that the EU contract with AstraZeneca provides for the supply of doses produced in both the EU and the UK. “But we didn’t receive anything from the British, even though we did supply them,” said Ursula von der Leyen, adding that the EU had sent a “formal letter” to complain to the Swedish-British pharmaceutical industry. group.
“I cannot explain to European citizens why we export millions of doses of vaccines to countries that produce them and do not return them to us,” he added.
The European Union adopted an export control mechanism for vaccines in January and last week extended the deadline for applying those rules to the end of June.
Under this mechanism, companies that have entered into pre-sale contracts for vaccines with the EU must be allowed to export doses outside the bloc.
In order to ban the export of vaccines, the Member State where they are produced must initiate the procedure, after which the Commission gives its approval.
This mechanism was once employed, in the case of Italy, which blocked the export of a shipment of 250,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s drug to Australia, arguing the laboratory’s “persistent shortage” of vaccines and “delays in delivery” by the laboratory. .