BRUSSELS – The European Union is finalizing emergency legislation that will give it broad powers to curb exports for the next six weeks of Covid-19 vaccines produced in the bloc, a sharp increase in response to the home shortages that caused a political maelstrom amid a rising third wave on the continent.
The draft legislation, which will be announced on Wednesday, has been reviewed by The New York Times and confirmed by two EU officials involved in the drafting process. The new rules will make it more difficult for pharmaceutical companies that manufacture Covid-19 vaccines in the European Union to carry them out and are likely to interrupt supply to Britain.
The European Union was largely at odds with AstraZeneca because it drastically cut its supply to the block, citing production problems in January, and the company is the main target of the new rules. But the legislation, which could block the export of millions of doses from EU ports, could also affect Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Britain is by far the largest beneficiary of EU exports and will lose the most through these rules, but it can also be applied to exports to other countries such as Canada, for example the second largest recipient of EU-produced vaccines, as well as Israel , who gets doses out of the block, but is very advanced in his vaccination campaign and therefore considered less needy.
“We are in the crisis of the century. And I do not rule out anything for the time being, because we must ensure that Europeans are vaccinated as soon as possible, ‘said Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, in comments last week which paved the way for the new rules . “Human lives, civil liberties and also the prosperity of our economy depend on, at the speed of vaccination, to continue.”
The legislation is unlikely to affect the United States, which has so far received less than one million doses of EU-based facilities.
The Biden administration said it had secured enough doses from its three authorized manufacturers – Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson – to cover all adults in the country by the end of May. The vast majority of the supply comes from plants in the United States. The country also exports vaccine components to the European Union, which is reluctant to risk any disruption in the supply chain of raw materials.
The European Union has allowed pharmaceutical companies to honor their contracts by allowing them to export more than 40 million vaccine doses to 33 countries between February and mid-March, with 10 million to Britain and 4.3 million to Canada. The bloc has kept about 70 million at home and distributed them to its 27 member states, but its efforts to carry out mass vaccinations have been hampered by a number of mistakes.
An important part of the problem was to export liberally overseas when supplies were scarce at home, and the bloc was criticized for allowing exports in the first place, when the United States and Britain practically shut down domestic production for domestic use. through contracts with pharmaceutical companies.
The outcome was a disturbing explosion for the world’s richest group of nations. The impact of the failures is exacerbated by a third wave that is sending health care systems across the continent into emergency and ushering in painful new connections.
The European Commission, which ordered the vaccines, and individual governments in member states responsible for their national campaigns have been severely criticized for their failures by voters tired of lockouts and growing Covid-19 consequences. Public outrage and its political cost increased as the bloc behind several peers around the world deteriorated in promoting vaccination campaigns, even though it was home to major manufacturers.
The bloc has seen recipients of vaccines produced in its member states, as well as in other rich countries, advance their vaccination campaigns. Nearly 60 percent of Israelis have received at least one vaccine dose, 40 percent of Britons and a quarter of Americans, but only 10 percent of EU citizens have been vaccinated, according to the latest information published by Our World in Data.
The export margins are being pushed through by the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, and although changes to the new rules may still take place before the law is finalized, officials have said it is unlikely to be material. They are expected to take effect soon.
EU officials said the rules would allow for some discretion, meaning it would not result in an overall export ban, and that officials still expect many exports to continue.
“The proposed measures apply,” said Youmy Han, a spokeswoman for Canadian International Trade Minister Mary Ng.
“Minister Ng’s counterparts have repeatedly assured her that these measures will not affect the vaccines to Canada,” she said. Han said. She added: “Like the whole pandemic, we will work with the EU and its member states to ensure that our vital health and medical supply chains remain open and resilient.”
Canada has almost the entire vaccine supply dependent on the European Union: All of Canada’s Moderna and Pfizer vaccines come from Europe, although the country has received a small amount of AstraZeneca vaccine from India.
The new rules come after months of growing tensions between the European Union and AstraZeneca, in a situation that has become toxic to the bloc’s fragile relations with its recently deceased member, Britain.
The trouble started in late January, when AstraZeneca told the bloc that it would cut deliveries by more than half in the first quarter of 2021, which would increase vaccine deployment. In response, the European Union has instituted a process of export authorization, requiring pharmaceutical companies to request authorization to export vaccines and giving the European Union the power to block them if it is considered to be in breach of the contractual obligations of a business opposite the block.
Since February 1, the European Union has blocked only one in more than 300 exports, a small batch of AstraZeneca vaccines to Australia, on the grounds that the country was almost Covid-free, while the bloc struggled with increasing infections.
The draft documents show that the new rules will provide more grounds to block exports. They will encourage blocking shipments to countries that do not export vaccines to the European Union – a clause clearly aimed at Britain – or to countries with a higher vaccination rate than the European Union ‘or where the current epidemiological situation is less serious is’ as in the block, according to the wording by The Times.
In recent days, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson has sought to strike a conciliatory tone in an effort to prevent an EU export ban that would be a major blow to his country’s rapid vaccination campaign.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Johnson said he was opposed to blockades and that he was “encouraged by some things I heard from the mainland.” The British news media reported that his government is ready to have the block produce four million AstraZeneca doses in an EU factory.
Benjamin Mueller contribution from London, Sharon LaFraniere of Washington and Ian Austen of Ottawa.