EU’s jabs blockade
Italy acts on Brussels threats over slow rollout and blocks vaccines heading for Australia
ITALY has grabbed jabs meant for Australia by blocking the export of 250,000 Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines.
In a move likely to reignite tensions over the sourcing of doses, Rome became the first capital to follow through on EU threats as it struggles with its slow rollout.
Italy accused the Anglo-Swedish firm of failing to fulfil its contract commitments in Europe and was backed in its move by Brussels.
The seized jabs will be distributed within the bloc, it was said last night.
It comes as Germany made a U-turn over AstraZeneca’s vaccine yesterday, approving it for all ages having spent weeks talking down its efficacy.
Regarding the doses earmarked for Australia, Italian prime minister Mario Draghi had already pressed EU leaders last week to use new vaccine export ban powers drawn up by the European Commission during a row with AstraZeneca earlier this year.
‘We have to go faster,’ he said, before making his play to stop the shipment days later. AstraZeneca in January slashed its supplies to the EU in the first quarter of the year to 40million doses – down from 90million.
The Cambridgeshire-based company later told the 27-strong bloc it was also likely to miss its target for the second quarter by 50 per cent too.
The row led Brussels to unveil what it branded an ‘export transparency
‘We have to go faster’
mechanism’, with vaccine manufacturers forced to ask permission from national governments before they ship outside of the EU.
Eurocrats insisted at the time that they simply wanted to keep track of what was being shipped where, playing down claims it would amount to a tool for blocking shipments.
But when AstraZeneca asked for permission to export the doses from its Anagni plant, near Rome, last week, it was turned down. Italy said it stopped the consignment because Australia, which was due to start giving out the jabs on Monday, was not considered ‘a vulnerable country’.
When notified of the decision, the European Commission did not object, officials said. An EU source said national authorities had the final say in such matters.
One EU source said the jab grab would send a ‘crystal clear message’ to AstraZeneca.
‘Being in this situation, not making up for it, not even offering excuses to the people they have let down and then asking for an export authorisation is a brazen move. Italy rightly stopped it,’ the diplomat said.
The export ban powers are set to expire at the end of March, but two Commission sources said they could be extended to the end of June.
The commission and Italy’s government have come in for sharp criticism by Italians for a slow vaccination rollout, which started in December but has been held up by a lack of doses.
Only this week Mr Draghi told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen it was necessary to ‘suffocate’ big pharmaceutical companies to force them to respect the agreed delivery terms.
But the country is not even out of jabs, holding some 1.2million AstraZeneca doses in its stocks, according to official EU data. It has used just 322,000 of its initial supply, the figures show.
Mr Draghi has brought in an army general who had served in Afghanistan and Kosovo to speed up the programme.
So far, 1.5million adults, mainly the elderly and health workers, have been fully vaccinated in the country of 60million. Britain, by contrast, has given at least one dose to just over a third of its 66million population.
The UK ordered 100million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine last May, making it the first country to do so. The ‘vast majority’ of the order is being produced at sites across Britain, the company has said, and so is out of EU clutches.
Brussels, on the other hand, waited until August before finalising its contract, having negotiated for all members to secure a bigger supply of jabs at a better price.
The row over blocking exports of doses risks a global diplomatic backlash but the
Australian High Commission to the UK declined to comment last night– as did the European Commission and AstraZeneca.
Worryingly, the number of new coronavirus cases has risen in Europe after six weeks of decline, the World Health Organisation said yesterday.
Both Sweden and Germany also approved the AstraZeneca jab for all ages yesterday, having previously questioned its safety for older people.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who just last week claimed she would not take the jab if offered it because she is 66 years old, said recent studies in the UK showed it was safe for everyone.
And Swedish health agency official Sara Byfors said: ‘There are new studies... showing AstraZeneca’s vaccine offers a very good protection in these [older] age groups.’
‘Send a crystal clear message’