The European Union on Wednesday threatened to take stricter measures to curb exports of Covid-19 vaccines, which would heighten a dispute with the US and Britain over their handling of deliveries to the 27-nation bloc.
As the EU faces a third wave of the pandemic, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a news conference on Wednesday that members of the group are ‘ready to use the tools we have’ need ‘to ensure that it has a fair share.
Noting that the EU has exported about 41 million doses of vaccine to other countries, she said that “open roads run in both directions, and that is why we need to ensure that there is reciprocity and proportionality.”
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Without naming a country, she added that if the situation does not change, “we will have to think about how to make exports to vaccine-producing countries dependent on their level of openness.”
Von der Leyen said the flow of vaccine products was smooth with the US, but expressed frustration over the lack of deliveries from AstraZeneca in Britain.
She said 10 million doses of EU plants had gone to the UK, but the bloc was still waiting for doses to come from the UK.
In the six weeks from 30 January, when the EU introduced a system requiring authorization to export vaccines, drug manufacturers sent 9.1 million doses to Britain and 1 million to the United States from plants in the block.
Von der Leyen also criticized Anglo-Swedish vaccine maker AstraZeneca, accusing the pharmaceutical company of delaying the EU’s vaccination campaign and warning that the bloc ‘weighs export bans to secure supplies’.
“AstraZeneca has unfortunately underproduced and underdelivered, and this has obviously painfully reduced the speed of the vaccination campaign,” she said.
The company originally promised to deliver 90 million doses in the first three months of the year, but later said it could only deliver 40 million, and recently only 30 million, she added. However, she said the EU was still aiming to vaccinate 70 per cent of all adults by September.
AstraZeneca has also been involved in reports of some recipients of the shot developing dangerous blood clots, although the company and international regulators believe there is no evidence that the vaccine is to blame. Several countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Spain, have suspended its use.
The European Medicines Agency said it was investigating reports of 30 cases of abnormal blood disorders from five million recipients of the AstraZeneca vaccine. In total, 45 million Covid-19 shots were delivered across the region.
The EU regulator will announce its findings on Thursday, but CEO Emer Cooke said he sees no reason to change his recommendation of AstraZeneca – one of four vaccines he approves for use.
A vaccine panel for the World Health Organization also said on Wednesday that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh the risks and recommends that vaccinations continue.
Last month, the WHO used the AstraZeneca vaccine and the University of Oxford for emergencies, which increased access to the relatively inexpensive shot in the developing world.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.