BRUSSELS is set to publicly outline its vaccine export ban plan tomorrow – which could see millions of Pfizer doses blocked from entering Britain within days.
Under the move to be finalised on Friday, customs authorities in EU countries will have to notify the Commission EVERY time jabs are being sent to Britain – allowing them to keep an eye on our supplies.
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The move is a huge ramp up in the ongoing vaccine war of words between Britain and the EU over access to vaccines– as Brussels continues to lag far behind the UK’s rollout.
An EU official said earlier that they would have the power to block experts, saying: “There is a possibility in certain circumstances not to allow the export to move forward.
“We want to ensure we have a say about where these vaccines are ending up in a situation where we are now in a shortfall of supply.”
They claimed that would only happen in “rare cases” where companies are failing to fulfil contract commitments to the EU.
Pfizer has announced a shortfall in production at its Belgian plant, where jabs destined for Britain are made.
Member States are fighting to take the toughest possible line to get their hands on any extra supplies after facing furious criticism for their slow rollouts.
The official said: “If the batch is refused naturally it would stay in Europe and distribution would happen according to the plan.”
For now the new controls only apply to completed vaccines, but eurocrats said they could be widened to cover the ingredients that go into making them too.
It came as
- Experts warned against EU vaccine nationalism
- The row over Brussels’ bid to divert jabs from Britain back to the bloc raged on
- Production at AZ’s Wrexham plant had to be temporarily halted due to a bomb scare
- Brussels today ordered a spot check on AstraZeneca’s vaccine factory in Belgium to investigate their supply issues
- Germany said it wouldn’t approve the jab to the over 65s, but Boris Johnson hit back, saying it was perfectly effective
JAB INSPECTORS
Brussels today ordered a spot check on AstraZeneca’s vaccine factory in Belgium to check it isn’t lying about delays to production- as eurocrats’ feud with the drugs giant grows ever more bitter.
The EU Commission is sending inspectors from the Belgian medicines agency into the plant amid an increasingly fractious row over Europe’s stuttering jabs rollout.
Its extraordinary move was confirmed in a statement by the office of Belgium’s health minister Frank Vandenbroucke, which said it was “to make sure that the delivery delay is indeed due to a production problem”.
Belgian experts will be joined by colleagues from the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain on the raid and will then draw up a report which is set to be released within “a few days”.
The shock development came as Germany’s health ministry today recommended AZ’s jab should only be given to under 65s.
In a statement it said: “There are currently insufficient data available to assess the vaccine efficacy from 65 years of age.”
The advice from Germany’s vaccine committee comes ahead of an expected EU wide decision on the jab tomorrow – to give it the formal green light.
During EU Parliament on Tuesday, the EMA boss Emer Cooke said there had been a “very small quantity of elderly populations” in AZ’s study and it was “possible to conclude an authorisation that would focus on a particular age group”.
But this evening Boris Johnson hit back – claiming the jab was perfectly safe for older people.
He said tonight that the Oxford jab “is a good vaccine and so I’m very confident about it”.
He added: “The evidence that they’ve supplied is that they think that it is effective across all age groups. It provides them a good immune response across all age groups, so I don’t agree with [the German decision].”
Today Downing Street refused to rule out giving UK vaccines to the EU once the most vulnerable in this country have been inoculated.
VAXX NOT ENOUGH
Germany’s government is under huge pressure over the bloc’s stuttering jabs rollout, with health minister Jens Spahn admitting the country faces at least 10 weeks of vaccine shortages.
Brussels’ health chief Stella Kyriakides told AZ it must begin sending jabs from its two plants in Oxfordshire and Staffordshire to the continent or risk financial and legal penalties.
In an extraordinary outburst, she accused the Anglo-Swedish firm of breaching its contract with the bloc by trying to keep the UK’s supply chain separate to that of the rest of Europe.
EU PRESSURE
And Brussels upped its demands further yesterday as a top MEP demanded AstraZeneca cuts deliveries to the UK to reroute supplies to Europe.
Peter Liese, who belongs to Angela Merkel’s CDU party, issued a veiled threat to the company that investors could pull out over the row.
He said: “If the only solution is to have a reduction of the delivery to the UK, and that would bring more vaccine to the EU, that is only fair.
“The reputation of the Pharma industry is already bad. If they behave like this it will be even worse.”
He even warned Britain and the EU risk being plunged into a “trade war” by the increasingly bitter feud over vaccine supplies.
VACCINE WARS
AstraZeneca has angered EU officials who say the pharmaceutical giant has only pledged to deliver a quarter of the 100 million doses it had promised for the first three months of 2021.
Brussels insists AstraZeneca must meet the supply shortfall from UK vaccine supplies, meaning the EU is demanding up to 75 million jabs from British factories.
During crisis talks last night Ms Kyriakides pushed the firm to fill the continent’s shortfall of up to 49 million doses by dipping into British production lines.
AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot said that supply chain “teething issues” were fixed in the UK ahead of the EU as Britain signed a contract three months earlier than the bloc.
But Ms Kyriakides said: “We reject the logic of first come first served. That may work at the neighbourhood butchers but not in contracts.”
Following the showdown, Ms Kyriakides claimed there was a “lack of clarity” over AstraZeneca’s delivery schedule and demanded a “clear plan”.
Ms Kyriakides said: “The EU remains united and firm.
“Contractual obligations must be met, vaccines must be delivered to EU citizens.”
Following the talks with EU officials, an AstraZeneca spokesman emphasised it was delivering the vaccine to millions of Europeans for no profit.
The spokesman told MailOnline: “We had a constructive and open conversation about the complexities of scaling up production of our vaccine, and the challenges we have encountered.
“We have committed to even closer co-ordination, to jointly chart a path for the delivery of our vaccine over the coming months as we continue our efforts to bring our vaccine to millions of Europeans at no profit during the pandemic.”
EU officials have vowed to trawl through export data to root out any shipments of vaccines the company may have sent to the UK as their row with it grows increasingly bitter.
The UK has ordered 367 million doses, enough for 5.5 per person, with a source telling The Times: “There is plenty of vaccine. It exceeds what the government wants to do.”
At a Brussels meeting tonight France and Poland added their voice to calls for EU-wide powers to ban exports of vaccines.
Germany has already come out in favour of much tighter controls on shipments of jabs to Britain and other nations.
Berlin’s health minister Jens Spahn today admitted his country is facing a shortage of vaccines for at least the next 10 weeks.
But fellow Member States are opposed to the plan, and one EU diplomat said it “won’t solve the problem.”
Britain has forged ahead with its jabs rollout after moving swiftly and tying up a contract with AstraZeneca for the supply of its jabs a whole three months earlier than Brussels.
But that progress could now be under threat with eurocrats piling pressure on company bosses to “reject the logic of first come first served” and start diverting doses their way.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith told Trending In The News: “You could not make it up! It’s pathetic. They screwed up and are now trying to blame everyone else.
“This is a really big moment as many will finally see just how arrogant and intolerant so many of the EU institutions really are.
“They just don’t get it. They have made a complete mess of vaccinations and having made that mess they are now trying to shift blame on to AZ .
“The blame is wholly theirs.
“This is an astonishing demonstration of mean spiritedness and arrogance, who makes it very clear to those who did not understand before, why we were right to leave the EU.”
Tory MP Michael Fabricant said: “This spat between the EU and AstraZeneca is an undignified attempt by the Brussels bureaucracy to blame anyone but themselves for their shameful performance so far in vaccinating the Europe population.
“This is such an example of highly paid European Commissioners trying to cover their derrieres.
Ms Kyriakides said the EU’s contract with the firm, for up to 400 million doses, names factories in the UK and not using them to supply the bloc is “against the letter and the spirit of our agreement”.
She fumed: “In our contract it is not specified that the UK has priority because it signed earlier. There is no such clause.”
Asked directly if the EU expects AstraZeneca to shift doses from Britain, she replied: “The UK factories have to deliver.”
An EU official added: “If UK plants are working better are we expecting UK plants to deliver doses to the EU? Yes we do.”
The PM added the AstraZeneca vaccine “continues to be made in ever-growing quantities in the UK” and “that will accelerate” in future.
As the row escalated AstraZeneca immediately hit back, insisting the Commission had been heavily involved in drawing up its plans for deliveries to Europe.
A spokesman said: “As each supply chain has been set up to meet the needs of a specific agreement, the vaccine produced from any supply chain is dedicated to the relevant countries or regions and makes use of local manufacturing wherever possible.”
A Government spokesman said they were in contact with the drugs giant and “we remain confident that supply of vaccine to the UK will not be disrupted”.
They added: “We have deals in place with seven vaccine developers that will ensure our supply continues to grow, as we rapidly expand the rollout in the weeks ahead.
“This pandemic is a global challenge and international collaboration on vaccine development and production continues to be an integral part of our response.”
The Commission has faced a barrage of criticism over the bloc’s snail-paced delivery of its vaccine programme, with critics openly questioning why the UK has been so much more successful.
Britain has jabbed 7.3 million people so far, dishing out an impressive 10.3 doses per 100 people.
In contrast the whole EU, which has a population seven times larger, has only vaccinated 9.7 million at a rate of just 2.19.
