They discovered in a deposit in Italy 29 million days …

Italian authorities discovered some 29 million doses hidden in warehouse in Italy of the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. According to the newspaper La Stampa, their existence was kept hidden because they were intended for the export to UK, a country with which the European Union maintains a conflict precisely because of the privileges it receives from the pharmaceutical company.

The doses were found in a Catalent company plant, near Rome, after a warning from the European Commission. According to information published by the Bloomberg press agency, part of this material was produced in the Netherlands by the firm Halix, a subcontractor of AstraZeneca with the capacity to generate 5 million doses per month.

The existence of this large number of vaccines, which is almost double what the European Union has received so far, was unknown to both the Italian government and community authorities, assured La Stampa. According to the local newspaper, this batch was bought by the United Kingdom to ensure the application of the second dose to nearly 15 million people.

The new, which caused a sensation in Europe, transcends precisely the day when the Community Executive planned to change the control mechanism created to prevent the export of vaccines abroad by manufacturers who do not respect their sales commitments to countries of the European Union. Since its launch a month and a half ago, the system has only been used once to block an AstraZeneca shipment also prepared for shipment from Italy, but this time to Australia.

This Wednesday, finally, the European Union formalized the modification of the control mechanism. From now on, explained the Vice-President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, “two additional elements” must be considered for the export authorization: reciprocity with the country of origin and proportionality in the orders.

The UK government, in response, stressed that the process of developing and delivering Covid-19 vaccines is “an international operation” and said it hoped to continue working with Brussels to secure the supply of doses. “We are fighting the same pandemic,” he warned. A little harsher, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the EU blockades “arbitrary”.

Tension between Brussels and London

This passage between Brussels and London is part of a conflict that has intensified in recent months due to the AstraZeneca’s continued non-compliance with the European Union, while the United Kingdom immediately receives the formula developed with the University of Oxford.

In this context last week, EU chief executive Ursula Von der Leyen threatened Boris Johnson’s UK government to veto vaccine exports to the UK.

This Thursday, Von der Leyen will take this proposal to EU heads of state and government who will meet by videoconference to analyze the problems faced by the bloc regarding the vaccination campaigns of each country.