European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks to the media at Berlaymont, the seat of the European Commission.
Thierry Monasse
LONDON – The European Union on Friday established temporary controls on the export of coronavirus vaccines made within the bloc, after a fight with British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and broader supply issues.
It recently suffered two massive blows with Pfizer saying it would be temporarily reducing production while upgrading its production capacity at its Belgian plant. Last week, AstraZeneca also said it would deliver far fewer doses to the EU in the spring than initially expected, due to production problems at its factories in the Netherlands and Belgium.
After pressuring AstraZeneca this week to honor its commitments and then urging the company to move vaccines made in the UK to the bloc, the EU confirmed on Friday that it was implementing temporary controls.
“Protecting the health of our citizens remains our highest priority, and we must implement the necessary measures to ensure this,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, on Friday.
“This transparency and authorization mechanism is temporary and, of course, we will continue to maintain our commitments to low and middle income countries.”
The controls are expected to last until the end of March.
“This time-limited, targeted system covers only Covid-19 vaccines that have been agreed by pre-purchase agreements with the EU,” said Valdis Dombrovskis, EU executive vice president and commissioner of trade.
“This mechanism includes a wide range of exemptions to fully honor our humanitarian aid commitments and protect vaccine deliveries to our neighborhood and to the countries in need covered by COVAX facilities.”
EU approves AstraZeneca vaccine
The European Union has been under pressure for what critics describe as a slow implementation of Covid vaccines. The European Commission, the institution leading the purchase agreements, was blamed for not guaranteeing enough vaccines, and the region’s medical agency was criticized for taking too long to approve vaccines that received the green light elsewhere.
On Friday, the European Medicines Agency approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency use in the EU, about a month after receiving the go-ahead in the UK, which recently left the block.
Speaking to CNBC on Friday, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin denied that this fight between Brussels and a British pharmaceutical company has turned into another “Brexit battle”.
“Overall, I think the European Commission has behaved well and effectively when it comes to purchasing vaccines,” he said. “There are a lot of tensions out there … a lot of pressure on the commission from the member states, from the prime ministers. Why? Because the populations are under pressure, people are under pressure.”