BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU leaders expressed frustration on Thursday with a massive deficit in contracted deliveries of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines as a third wave of infections rose across Europe.
With inoculation programs far behind those in Britain and the United States, the bloc’s executive warned that the British-Swedish company’s vaccine exports will be blocked until it delivers the shots it promised to the EU. .
“We must and we want to tell our European citizens to get their fair share,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference after a video conference summit of European Union leaders.
“The company has to catch up, it has to fulfill the contract it has with the European member states before it can re-export vaccines,” he said.
Of the 300 million doses to be delivered to EU countries by the end of June, Astrazeneca aims to deliver only 100 million.
This has contributed to the start of vaccination as a stutterer. As of March 23, Britain had administered about 46 shots per 100 people, compared to less than 14 per cent in the 27-nation bloc it left last year, according to figures compiled by the website Our World In Data .
This week, the European Commission unveiled plans to tighten surveillance of vaccine exports. This would allow for greater scope to block shipments to countries with higher inoculation rates.
The EU is divided on whether to adopt a tougher line on vaccine exports by companies that do not meet their contractual commitments. French President Emmanuel Macron made it clear he was behind it.
“It’s the end of naivety,” he told a news conference after the summit. “I support the fact that we have to block all exports while some pharmaceutical companies do not respect their commitments to Europeans.”
FIGHT WITH BRITTANY
The problematic implementation of vaccines in Europe has led to a dispute with Britain, which has imported 21 million doses made into the EU, according to an EU official. Britain says it did a better job negotiating with manufacturers and organizing supply chains.
The EU says it should share more, especially to help offset the deficit in contracted deliveries of AstraZeneca fire.
Brussels and London tried to cool tensions on Wednesday, saying they were working “to create a win-win situation and expand the supply of vaccines for all our citizens”.
Highlighting the EU’s difficulties, US biotechnology company Novavax is delaying the signing of a contract to supply its vaccine to the bloc, an EU official told Reuters on Thursday due to problems obtaining some materials first.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he and other leaders hoped a stricter approach would not be applied to vaccine exports and warned of “wider consequences” if so.
Von der Leyen, who was trying to counter allegations that the EU’s threat of export blocs amounted to “vaccine nationalism”, presented slides showing that 77 million doses of EU plant vaccine had been sent to more than 40 countries since early December.
He said the EU would still achieve its goal of inoculating 70% of adults in the summer and noted that while a third wave of infections was developing, increases in mortality were slower than spread of the virus due to vaccinations of the elderly.
Written by John Chalmers; Additional reports by John Chalmers, Michel Rose, Sabine Siebold, Francesco Guarascio, Madeline Chambers; Edited by David Gregorio