The telegraph
France and Germany ponder sanctions on vaccine suppliers as the EU’s dispute over delays increases
France and Germany threatened legal action against AstraZeneca on Sunday, as they struggled to explain the scarcity of vaccine supplies and warned that any company that favored UK vaccine orders would be penalized. Clement Beaune, the French minister of Europe, threatened sanctions against the Anglo-Swedish company, which produces the Oxford vaccine, if it found out that Britain had been given priority. “If there is a problem and other countries are favored – for example, the United Kingdom over us – then we will defend our interests,” said Beaune on Sunday. “Contracts are not moral commitments, they are legal commitments. Penalties or sanctions can be applied to each contract ”. This happened when Berlin and Rome issued similar threats to vaccine suppliers, at the last stage of a close dispute in Europe over delays in the production and delivery of Covid vaccines. “If we find that individual companies are not fulfilling their share of the bargain, we will have to make a decision on legal measures,” Peter Altmaier, the German Economy Minister, told Die Welt newspaper. Altmaier, a close confidant of Chancellor Angela Merkel, also warned vaccine producers that “it is by no means acceptable for another country to be retrospectively favored over the EU”. AstraZeneca says it will deliver 4.6 million doses to France by the end of March, which is half the amount initially agreed. It has also significantly reduced its delivery targets for the EU for the first quarter of the year, leading to a furious response from Brussels, which accuses the company of offering preferential treatment to the UK. Sanctions considered by France include withholding payments, canceling subsequent orders and claiming damages for breach of contract. Beaune said an investigation into vaccine deliveries to Britain by EU-based factories was already underway. As the third wave of coronavirus spreads across the continent, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, is resisting calls to impose a third blockade and has instead tightened existing restrictions. “When you’re French, you have everything you need to succeed, as long as you dare to try,” he told ministers on Friday, although the refusal to declare a total blockade was against the recommendations of his own scientific advisers. Polish police threw tear gas and stunning grenades over the weekend, while closing nightclubs and illegal parties in the cities of Wroclaw and Rybnik. As in other European cities, some companies opened the market by defying the rules, while protests over Covid’s restrictions broke out in the Netherlands, Spain, France and Denmark. Dutch police arrested at least 30 people in Amsterdam on Sunday as they struggled to prevent a new outbreak of anti-lockdown rebellions. Thousands of protesters also took to the streets of Vienna over the weekend, participating in an anti-lockdown demonstration organized by a far-right group. Similar scenes took place in Hungary, where a group of 100 restaurants said it would reopen despite facing threats from heavy government fines. It was also reported over the weekend that Boris Johnson forced the EU to make two twists in vaccines after Brussels tried to prevent doses at a Belgian factory from reaching the UK, and acted to impose a tough border in Northern Ireland with the same purpose. During two phone calls with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, Johnson reportedly persuaded the EU chief to abandon both proposals, the Mail on Sunday reported. Micheál Martin, the Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister), told the BBC on Sunday that he was “surprised” by the EU’s threat to close the border. “The problem is that the commission used the wrong mechanism to revoke Article 16 of the protocol to deal with this,” he said, adding that there were “many lessons to be learned” about vaccine provision. On Sunday night, Ms Von der Leyen announced on Twitter that the EU would increase the supply of vaccines this week. “[AstraZeneca] will deliver 9 million additional doses in the first quarter (40 million in total) compared to last week’s offer and will begin deliveries a week ahead of schedule. The company will also expand its manufacturing capacity in Europe, “she wrote.