Syringes prepared at the Brussels Expo Covid-19 Vaccination Center in Brussels, Belgium, Friday, March 5, 2021.
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LONDON – The launch of the coronavirus vaccine in Europe has once again come to the fore after the Italian government blocked the transport of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines to Australia.
The EU has struggled to distribute Covid-19 photos in the 27-member region and lags behind other advanced economies in terms of the number of vaccinations per citizen. There are complaints that regulators are too slow to approve vaccines, there have been problems with manufacturing and delivery and national bureaucracy, hampering the process.
But new questions were raised on Thursday, when Italy became the first EU country to use the bloc’s new regulations, which allow exports to be stopped if necessary. The move stopped about 250,000 doses of vaccine at its factory in Anagni, Italy, and was shipped to Australia.
The launch of vaccines in Europe “will be an uphill battle,” Daniel Gros, director of the think tank at the Center for European Political Studies in Brussels, Belgium, told CNBC on Friday.
How the EU got here
At the end of January, the EU announced new rules allowing European Member States where coronavirus outbreaks occur to ban exports if the pharmaceutical company involved does not comply with pre-existing contracts with the bloc.
The EU and AstraZeneca have been at odds since the drug maker failed to deliver as many shots as the bloc expected for the first quarter. There were also doubts about how many hits the company will be able to deliver in the second quarter.
The EU is fried for something the US is doing in a more radical way.
Daniel Gros
CEPS director
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said late last month that the vaccine shortage was due to production problems and that his company was working non-stop to increase production.
French Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Friday morning that France could replicate Italy’s move. German Health Minister Jens Spahn said there was no reason so far to stop shipments of vaccines produced in Germany to other countries, according to Reuters.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said last month that about 95% of EU-manufactured vaccines exported since the end of January were manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, as both companies comply with the EU agreement.
At the time, she also said that the United States and the United Kingdom had systems in place to block exports of these vaccines.
Europe is “fried” for something others are doing
“The EU is fried for something that makes the US more radical,” said Gros of CEPS.
“The amount involved was small. But, as usual, people jump on the symbols. The US doesn’t have this problem of having to stop vaccines at the border, because no one would even think of trying to export something from the US.” he added.
In an executive order in early December, then-President Donald Trump ordered the US to export vaccines produced in the country only after it was established that there were enough doses to inoculate the American population.
“Having determined that there are sufficient doses of COVID-19 vaccine for all Americans who choose to be vaccinated (US) will facilitate international access to US government COVID-19 vaccines for allies, partners and others, as appropriate. and in accordance with the applicable law “, it is shown in the order.
Shipment to Australia has been blocked because the country is not on the EU’s list of vulnerable nations. EU regulation exempts distribution to poorer countries from blocking Member States.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told a news conference on Friday that the country’s vaccination program would “continue uninterrupted”, adding that the transport in question was not one they had relied on for launch.
Australia has reportedly asked the European Commission to review Italy’s decision to block transport, but Morrison acknowledged that he understood why there was a high level of anxiety in Italy and across Europe.
“We should not forget that the EU supplies vaccines to the south of the world, while preventing this transport to Australia,” Alberto Alemanno, a professor of European law at HEC Paris, told CNBC on Friday.
He added that “the EU export control regulation embodies the EU’s legitimate attempt to achieve some sovereign autonomy”.