Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, speaks to the media in Berlaymont, the headquarters of the European Commission.
Thierry Monasse
LONDON – The European Union imposed temporary controls on exports of coronavirus vaccines made in the block on Friday, following a falling out with British pharma giant AstraZeneca and wider delivery issues.
It recently took two massive blows and Pfizer said it would cut production temporarily while upgrading its production capacity at its Belgian plant. Last week, AstraZeneca also said it would deliver far fewer doses to the EU in the spring than initially expected due to production issues at its factories in the Netherlands and Belgium.
After pushing AstraZeneca this week to fulfill its commitments and then urging the company to move vaccines made in the UK to the bloc, the EU confirmed on Friday that it is implementing temporary checks.
“Protecting the health of our citizens remains our top priority and we must take the necessary measures to achieve this,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday.
“This transparency and authorization mechanism is temporary, and we will of course continue to honor our commitments to low and middle income countries.”
The checks are expected to last until the end of March.
“This temporary and targeted system only covers those Covid-19 vaccines that have been agreed through advanced purchase agreements with the EU,” said Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU’s executive vice president and trade commissioner.
“This mechanism includes a wide variety of exceptions to fully deliver on our humanitarian aid commitments and protect the delivery of vaccines to our environment and to countries in need that are covered by the COVAX facility.”
EU approves AstraZeneca vaccine
The European Union is under pressure because of what critics describe as a slow rollout of Covid vaccines. The European Commission, the agency leading the purchase agreements, has been blamed for not securing sufficient vaccines, and the region’s medical service has been criticized for taking too long to approve vaccinations that have been given the green light elsewhere.
On Friday, the European Medicines Agency approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for emergencies in the EU, about a month after it first got the green light in the UK, which recently left the block.
Speaking to CNBC on Friday, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin denied that this row between Brussels and a British pharmaceutical company had turned into another “Brexit battle”.
“Overall, I think the European Commission has behaved well and effectively with regard to the purchase of vaccines,” he said. “There are a lot of tensions out there … a lot of pressure on the committee of the member states, of prime ministers. Why? Because the population is under pressure, the people are under pressure.”