BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission on Wednesday will extend the EU’s powers to potentially block exports of the COVID-19 vaccine to Britain and other areas with much higher vaccination rates, and to cover cases of companies that delayed the supply of contracted supplies, EU officials said.
The regulation aims to make vaccine trade reciprocal and proportionate, so that other vaccine-producing countries sell to Europe and the EU does not export much more than it imports, an EU official said.
Without numerical targets, the change is unlikely to trigger bans on mass export of vaccines manufactured in the EU, the official said with information about the announcement on Wednesday.
“I really don’t see this happening because we have our international obligations and we want to keep supply chains and the global system up and running,” said the official.
The regulation will be the basis for the 27 EU governments to decide whether to block vaccine exports or not.
“In practice, all of this is a piece of paper that says please take this into account when considering the approval of export permits,” said the official.
The move, which EU officials said could reach AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, is designed to avoid even limited delivery deficits for a region whose inoculation program has been affected by delays and supply problems.
Shipments abroad can also be withheld if vaccine-producing countries like Britain and the United States ban exports to the EU, officials said, confirming comments by the commission’s head, Ursula von der Leyen, this week. last.
As London-Brussels tensions rose on Monday because of a possible export ban, Britain demanded that EU authorities allow the delivery of the ordered vaccines.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain did not believe in imposing vaccine blocks. “I am encouraged by some of the things I heard from the continent in the same direction,” he said at a news conference.
Johnson & Johnson announced delays in its second quarter deliveries to the EU, which a second EU official said could lead to consequences under the Commission’s amendment covering companies that backload contracted quarterly deliveries.
All vaccine manufacturers can be affected, added the second official, with direct knowledge of the Commission’s decision. Some on the EU’s list of countries exempt from any vaccine export monitoring, such as Israel, are likely to be removed because of their very high inoculation rates, the first official said.
“This does not mean that they are not going to receive vaccines. It just means that they are no longer automatically exempt, ”said the first EU official.
‘WE DON’T WANT THE SAME DELAYS IN THE 2ND T’
The EU used an export control mechanism, established in late January, to block an AstraZeneca vaccine shipment to Australia this month.
This mechanism can be activated only if the companies do not meet the contracted quarterly delivery targets. The blockade came after AstraZeneca’s announcement of sharp cuts in first quarter deliveries to the EU.
With the changes to be approved on Wednesday, the EU could block exports to cover companies that respect their quarterly contracts but delay supplies until the end of the period, said the official, who requested anonymity.
Johnson & Johnson, which has pledged to deliver 55 million doses to the EU between April and June, plans to start deliveries in the second half of April.
The company told EU officials that production problems could make it difficult to meet its target for the second quarter, but is working hard to do so.
Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech also experienced delays in vaccine deliveries to the EU, although they are expected to meet their overall goals for the first quarter. “We don’t want the same delays to happen in the second quarter,” said the second employee.
Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski; Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio; edition by John Stonestreet and Richard Chang