European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to block vaccine exports to the UK to safeguard scarce doses for EU citizens.
Shortages of vaccine doses is impeding the vaccination efforts across nations in the bloc. This has resulted in slower delivery of COVID vaccines in the EU as compared to the UK.
Speaking at a press conference, von der Leyen posited that she wants Europe to get a fair share of vaccines.
“We want to see reciprocity and proportionality in exports. And we are ready to use whatever tool we need to deliver on that. This is about making sure that Europe gets its fair share.”
Pfizer/BioNTech produce vaccine doses for Europe and the UK in BioNTech’s German manufacturing sites. As well as in Pfizer’s manufacturing site in Belgium.
The EU Commission President revealed that the EU had received more than 300 requests for overseas vaccine shipments over the past six weeks and refused just one. She added that the bloc had exported 41m doses to 33 countries.
“This shows that Europe is trying to make international cooperation work. But open roads run in both directions … It is hard to explain to our citizens why vaccines produced in the EU are going to other countries that are also producing vaccines, but hardly anything is coming back.”
EU still waiting for vaccines from the UK exports
von der Leyen specifically mentioned the UK, saying that the EU has exported 10 million doses to Britain in the past six weeks. This, she said, makes it “country number one as far as exports from the EU is concerned.
“But while the UK is producing AstraZeneca vaccines. And there are even two sites in the UK that are our contract for potential deliveries for the EU … we’re still waiting for doses to come from the UK. So, this is an invitation for reciprocity.”
She also stated that while BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna were meeting their contractual obligations to the bloc, AstraZeneca was on course to deliver just 30m of its promised 90m does in the first quarter and 70m of a contracted 180m in the second.
The British government has, however, repeatedly said it has not imposed an export ban on vaccine components or completed doses. But it has rules in place to ensure that vaccine doses produced by Oxford/AstraZeneca at the sites in the UK would supply Britain first.
von der Leyen said the bloc was in “the crisis of the century. We have to make sure Europeans are vaccinated as soon as possible. Human lives, civil liberties and our economy are dependent on the speed of vaccination on moving forward.
“If the vaccine supply situation doesn’t change, we will have to reflect on how to make exports to vaccine-producing countries, dependent on their level of openness. And on whether exports to countries who have higher vaccination rates than us are still proportionate.”
She further explained that the bloc does not have an issue with the US, which does operate a formal export ban.
“With the US the reciprocity is given. There are no exports of vaccines from the US to the EU, but nor are there exports from the EU to the US. And there is a seamless flow back and forth of pre-products and raw materials.”
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