The European Union has confirmed that it will be able to block exports of COVID-19 vaccines to fulfill its order forms

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Monday that bloc could block further COVID-19 vaccine exports, after Italy stopped shipping vaccines to Australia.

“It was not an isolated case», Explained the head of the European executive to the newspaper WirtschaftsWoche. To defend the Italian initiative, Von der Leyen alleged that “AstraZeneca delivered to the European Union less than 10% of the quantities ordered in the period from December to March”.

For now, the blockade imposed by Italy on the shipment of vaccines to Australia is the only one so far since Brussels approved its export control mechanism, although similar moves could occur in the region. ‘to come up.

Thursday, Rome announced that it had suspended, with the approval of Brussels, the export of 250,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, produced on European territory. Later, Von der Leyen explained that the measure was not intended for the ocean country, but a warning to the pharmaceutical company, which does not “systematically” respect its delivery commitments with the EU.

This Monday, the executive said that the EU is expected to receive an average of 100 million doses per month from April, more than triple the amount received in February or double the estimated amount for March. This increase in the expected quantity could also increase the possibility of breaches in laboratories and further blockages, as dozens of developing countries anxiously await the arrival of the vials.

However, one of the arguments made by Italy is that Australia is dealing with the pandemic in a positive way, so it follows that the blockade would not be applied to shipments to countries more engaged in the crisis.

Von der Leyen also assured that is already working to adjust and shorten the approval procedures for vaccines by the European Medicines Agency (regulatory agency) and to increase the Community’s production capacity for medicines, with less dependence on external supply chains.

German policy stresses that, despite criticism, “the common European path is the right one” and recalled the “chaotic” situation when the pandemic started in Europe, when “states took national measures which were not coordinated and reduced the flow of goods in Europe “.

(With information from AFP and EFE)

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