The EU may block the export of the Belgian vaccine BioNTech / Pfizer to the UK in response to the disruption in the supply of the vaccine to the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca.
This was reported by the British edition of The Independent on the night of Friday, January 29, with reference to a letter from the head of the European Council Charles Michel that came to the disposal of the editors, DW reports.
According to this document, Brussels is allegedly exploring the possibility of applying such "urgent measures" to ensure the production and supply of vaccines for the EU population. For this, the EU leadership is ready to use "all legal means", but so far it is trying to solve the problem "through dialogue and negotiations."
The publication notes that the so-called "vaccine wars" were provoked by the company AstraZeneca, on January 22, unexpectedly announcing a delay in the supply of its vaccine to the EU, but guaranteeing to keep the supply to the UK in full. The company explained such actions by the fact that the contract with the EU was concluded later. In the 1st quarter of 2021, AstraZeneca will cut supplies to the EU by 67%.
EU Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides demanded that AstraZeneca fulfill all obligations under the contract. The EU has suspected that AstraZeneca is supplying some of the EU vaccines to the UK and other non-EU countries. The company's management rejects these charges.
In return, the UK has ordered 40 million doses of BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine. According to the letter of the head of the European Council published by the British edition, Charles Michel proposed to the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen to suspend the supply of this vaccine to the UK.
In total, the European Commission has signed contracts with eight vaccine manufacturers for the purchase of about 2.3 billion doses. To date, however, only BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine is supplied in the EU.
Of the 450 million inhabitants of the 27 EU member states, about 8.4 million people (just over 2% of the population) have received the coronavirus vaccine so far. If the current pace continues, vaccination of Europeans could take as long as two years.
