Emmanuel Macron backs EU threat to bloc vaccine exports to the UK

Emmanuel Macron backed Brussels' tough talk against AstraZeneca and Boris Johnson.

Credit: AFP

Emmanuel Macron called on Britain to send UK-manufactured AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines to the European Union and said he backed Ursula von der Leyen’s threat to impose an export ban on jabs to the UK. 

The European Commission president said yesterday that the bloc could trigger Article 122 to block exports, seize factories and waive intellectual property rights, and that she wanted  the issue discussed at a summit next week in Brussels. 

“I support the announcements made by the President of the European Commission in this matter,” said Mr Macron said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Britain has vaccinated 40 percent of its population while the EU has only managed to vaccinate 12 percent. 

The health spokesman for Angela Merkel’s CDU party criticised the threat, describing it as “an own goal” for an “export-oriented nation”.

Karin Maag told Spiegel, “If every country withholds ‘its’ vaccines produced either for itself or within Europe, no country can ultimately carry out its vaccinations safely and vaccinations will take longer everywhere.”

Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine supply in EU

Mrs von der Leyen, who has been embroiled in a row with AstraZeneca over supply shortfalls since January, said that 10million EU manufactured jabs had been exported to Britain but none had been sent from the UK to the bloc. 

Mrs von der Leyen warned that unless there was “reciprocity” in vaccines, and the UK released AstraZeneca from its contract stipulating that British orders are fulfilled at its two factories before any exports are made, a ban was possible. 

The French president said he backed the move from Brussels to “to demand reciprocity in the measures taken throughout the world.”  

AstraZeneca is required under its contract with the EU to deliver 300 million doses by the end of June, but it said last week it aimed to ship only 100 million, due to production problems and export restrictions. 

It was announced yesterday that supplies to Britain have also been hit by delays with a significant reduction in supplies from March 29, which is linked to supply problems from India. 

Any EU export ban would run the risk of retaliation from Britain, which could block vaccine component exports. The Government and AstraZeneca refuse to say if any vaccines have been exported to the bloc but components have been sent to the EU. 

The European Commission’s chief spokesman said on Thursday that Brussels was in “constant contact” with the UK over the issue.

Mr Macron falsely claimed the AstraZeneca jab was “quasi-ineffective” in the over 65s in January but has since said he would take the jab.

He is expected to swiftly lift France’s suspension on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine after a decision by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) this afternoon. 

France, Germany, Italy, Spain and 13 other EU countries halted their rollout of the Oxford University jab, amid fears over blood clots linked to the jab.

The EMA and the World Health Organisation have both said the vaccine is safe but the EU medicines watchdog has carried out a fresh investigation to assuage fears over the shot. It is expected to clear the jab. 

WHO Europe Director Hans Kluge said: ‘Benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh any risks and its use should continue to save lives."

The commission will send a letter to AstraZeneca as part of efforts to resolve a dispute with the Anglo-Swedish company over its supplies of COVID-19 vaccines to the bloc, which is a contractual step towards informal talks. If unsuccessful it could eventually lead to legal action.

Alexander Stubb, the former prime minister of Finland, ran unsuccessfully to be European Commission president. 

He criticised British triumphalism over the UK’s vaccination roll out, which has raced far ahead of the EU’s. 

“If I came from a country with one of the highest Covid-19 death rates per capita or otherwise, I would not necessarily bang my chest about a vaccine roll-out which is roughly four to six weeks ahead of others,” he tweeted. 

“It is simply shortsighted and disrespectful to the victims of the pandemic.”