EU acting like a dictatorship over vaccine supply, Dominic Raab says
The EU has come under fire after threatening to use emergency powers to keep Europe’s ‘fair share’ of vaccines for itself.
Britain’s foreign secretary has suggested that the EU is acting like a dictatorship after it threatened to use emergency powers to grab “Europe’s fair share” of vaccines from the UK.
Dominic Raab accused the European Commission of the kind of brinkmanship associated with undemocratic countries after it threatened to block the export of vaccines to the UK.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said she was no longer prepared for vaccines made in the EU to be exported to Britain while Europe faced shortages of critical medicines.
To ensure supplies, she warned that Brussels was ready to trigger an emergency treaty clause allowing the commission to confiscate production plants and tear up patent controls.
“It is hard to explain to our citizens why vaccines produced in the EU are going to other countries that are also producing vaccines, while hardly anything is coming back,” Von der Leyen said. “All options are on the table. We are in the crisis of the century and I’m not ruling out anything because we have to make sure Europeans are vaccinated as soon as possible.”
Raab said that restricting the export of vaccines would be “wrong”. He told Reuters: “I think it takes some explaining, because the world’s watching.
“We’ve, all of us, including with our European friends, been saying throughout the pandemic, that you’d be wrong to curtail or interfere with lawfully contracted supply. We all said it last year on PPE. We’ve been saying it this year, on vaccines and other things.
“It also cuts across the direct assurances we had from the commission and indeed, which I followed up on this week and over the last few days. We were reliably informed that they weren’t aware of any plans to restrict lawfully contracted supply to the UK. Frankly, I’m surprised we’re having this conversation. It is normally what the UK and EU team up on to reject when other countries with less democratic views than our own engage in that kind of brinkmanship.”
Downing Street suggested that the stand would undermine the fight against Covid-19.
“Putting in place restrictions endangers global efforts to fight the virus,” the prime minister’s official spokesman said.
The ultimatum came despite 17 countries suspending use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine because of concerns over possible links to blood clots. The claims have been strongly disputed by AstraZeneca and the UK regulator. The European Medicines Authority is to publish its findings on the potential link today (Thursday).
Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said he expected European regulators to conclude there was no extra risk of blood clots as he rebuked countries that paused its use. “Vaccines don’t save lives if they’re in fridges,” he said. “They only save lives if they’re in arms.”
Jeremy Brown, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, accused Brussels of “overblowing” concerns about blood clots.
EU governments have used only 48 million vaccine doses out of the 62.2 million delivered. Almost half the 14.8 million AstraZeneca doses produced for the EU have not been used.
Germany has received more than three million AstraZeneca jabs but has used only 1.3 million. France has been supplied with 2.4 million doses but only 919,115 have been used.
Bernd Lange, head of the European parliament’s trade committee, was critical of the threat to block vaccine exports and urged Von der Leyen to work on the “political level” with the UK. “Threat of export bans on Covid-19 vaccine by the European Commission is sign of helplessness rather than strength,” he tweeted. “We’ve seen this coming for months.” The UK has vaccinated about 40 per cent of the population and the EU only 12 per cent.
EU leaders held secret talks with Charles Michel, the European Council president, over AstraZeneca shortfalls before a summit next week. A source said: “Leaders shared their concerns on possible gaps in the vaccine distribution between member states following the fact that one company has not respected its commitment.”
Michel will urge EU leaders to back the emergency powers next week. “I support all efforts to resolve the matter with companies through dialogue and negotiation,” he wrote yesterday (Wednesday) to the chancellor of Austria and the prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Denmark and Greece.
“However, if no satisfactory solution can be found, I believe we should explore all options and make use of all legal means and enforcement measures at our disposal under the treaties. This could include a possible recourse to Article 122. This would give the EU and member states the legal means, by adopting appropriate urgent measures, to ensure effective vaccine production and supply for our population.”
Additional reporting: Chris Smyth
The Times
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