EU to impose tougher controls on Covid vaccine exports to the UK
The EU has updated its vaccine export restrictions to enforce tougher controls on shipments of jabs to the UK, as a bitter dispute over Covid vaccine supplies continues to escalate.
The fresh restrictions, which are due to go before EU leaders tomorrow, stop short of a total ban on vaccine exports but are likely to further enflame tensions with Britain.
Exports of coronavirus vaccines to the UK will now be based on “reciprocity and proportionality”, according to European Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen.
It means border officials will need to take into account the vaccination rate and vaccine supply of countries before shipments can be authorised.
“While our member states are facing the third wave of the pandemic and not every company is delivering on its contract, the EU is the only major OECD producer that continues to export vaccines at large scale to dozens of countries,” Von der Leyen told an EU press conference.
She added: “The EU has an excellent portfolio of different vaccines and we have secured more than enough doses for the entire population. But we have to ensure timely and sufficient vaccine deliveries to EU citizens. Every day counts.”
EU countries will now be required to consider whether a destination country restricts its own exports of vaccines and if the “conditions prevailing” mean exports are “justified”, added Valdis Dombrovskis, the executive vice-president of the European Commission.
A Downing Street spokesperson hit back at the move, saying: “We are all fighting the same pandemic — vaccines are an international operation; they are produced by collaboration by great scientists around the world. And we will continue to work with our European partners to deliver the vaccine rollout.”
Italy became the first country to trigger the vaccine export mechanism earlier this month, when it blocked the shipment of 250,000 doses of the Astrazeneca vaccine to Australia due to supply shortages in the Mediterranean country.
The European Commission implemented border controls on vaccines at the end of January after Astrazeneca fell 75m doses short of the planned orders for the EU in the first quarter of 2021.
Von der Leyen said last week that the bloc was facing “the crisis of this century”, as EU leaders face mounting criticism over the sluggish vaccine rollout across the continent.
Just over 12 per cent of adults in the EU have received their first dose of a Covid vaccine, compared to more than 50 per cent of Britain’s adult population.
Italy is one of 19 countries across the bloc to have recorded a spike in cases over recent weeks alongside the EU’s slow immunisation programme.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi imposed fresh restrictions across several regions last week following a 10 per cent rise in infections, with the country set to enter its third national lockdown over the Easter weekend.