Photographer: Alessia Pierdomenico / Bloomberg
Photographer: Alessia Pierdomenico / Bloomberg
The European Union will review all requests for exports AstraZeneca Plc vaccines “very serious” to the UK are likely to reject it until the drugmaker meets its delivery obligations to the block, a senior EU official said.
In response to comments by British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace on Sunday that the EU should honor its vaccine contracts, the official in Brussels said it was not the EU’s responsibility to help Astra meet its obligations to the UK. .
The EU has its own contracts with the company that are currently not respected, and any vaccines and ingredients manufactured in European factories will be provisionally reserved for local deliveries, the official said. and was not made public.
The EU and the UK have been at odds over vaccine exports since Astra Brussels announced it would not be able to deliver the shots it promised to the bloc. The row is becoming increasingly toxic, with the two sides blaming each other for export curbs and nationalism, and some fear the splash could pose a risk to the fragile post-Brexit trade deal agreed in December.
The EU must honor its vaccine contracts, even as the sluggish effects put pressure on governments, Wallace told Sky News.
“The commission knows from the inside that it will be counterproductive,” he said. “They are under tremendous political pressure on the European Commission. It would damage EU relations worldwide if they renounced these contracts. ”
The EU official said there were no outstanding requests for UK exports from Astra’s production facility in the Netherlands, but should such a request be made, it would likely be rejected. More than 10 million doses have been exported from the EU to the UK, although officials said very few of these shipments were of the Astra vaccine and its ingredients.
“The Netherlands will let exports continue in principle until the European Commission says otherwise,” a Dutch spokesman said on Sunday. ‘To avoid a tipping point where the Commission, in cooperation with member states, is indeed taking further steps, it is of the utmost importance that Brussels, London and AstraZeneca immediately reach an agreement on the vaccines the company produces in facilities that fall under both. contracts. ”
– Assisted by Suzi Ring