The European Commission is preparing to launch legal proceedings against vaccine producer AstraZeneca, according to five EU diplomats.
The Commission raised the issue on Wednesday at a meeting of ambassadors, during which most EU countries said they would support suing the company over allegations it was unable to massively deliver promised doses to the bloc.
A diplomat clarified that the aim of the court proceedings is to force AstraZeneca to provide the doses set out in its EU contract.
Two of the diplomats said there was a deadline later this week, when EU countries should sign the launch of a court proceeding.
AstraZeneca angered the EU in January, when it said it would not be able to offer the block the number of doses initially planned. At the end of the first quarter, the company delivered 30 million doses to EU countries, instead of the 100 million doses committed to the EU contract. Scarcity has severely hampered vaccination campaigns in all EU countries.
The company has projected that it would deliver approximately 70 million doses by the end of the second quarter of the year, when it was supposed to have delivered the guaranteed 300 million doses to the EU contract.
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