EU leaders are likely to refuse to support the use of new powers to curb Covid’s vaccine behavior to countries with better job coverage such as the UK, according to a draft statement ahead of a meeting of EU leaders.
The European Commission has expanded its capacity to block vaccine exports but dissatisfaction among member states is to be expressed in an audible statement at the end of Thursday night’s meaningful conference.
In its most recent draft decision, leaders emphasize the “importance of transparency as well as the exercise of export authority”.
Countries such as the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium and Sweden, which are concerned about the impact on supply chains, have pushed back against any specific reference to the commission’s revised regulation.
The Commission will retain its new powers despite a clear lack of support from leaders, but diplomatic sources from within the most skeptical member states said they hoped the “stick would never be used”.
Speaking in the Bundestag, German Chancellor Angela Merkel did not comment specifically on the new powers but instead called on Europe to increase domestic vaccine production due to a lack of exports from the UK and the US, referring to the pandemic as “a major litmus test. ”Of the EU’s capabilities.
“The current problem with vaccine supply is not so much with the question of what was prescribed, but more about what can be done on European soil,” she said.
“Because we see clearly: British manufacturing factories are manufacturing for Britain, the US is not producing anything, so we are dependent on what can be done in Europe and must We expect this virus to inspire us for a long time. “
On Wednesday the Commission updated its export licensing approach to allow officials to ban shipments to countries with a high level of vaccine coverage or those that restrict exports by law or in the treaties. with suppliers.
The UK does not ban the export of vaccines, but the government has signed a contract with AstraZeneca that requires the Anglo-Swedish company to deliver doses issued in Oxford and Staffordshire to Britain at first.
The UK also appears to be falling below new EU criteria for vaccine coverage, with 45 jobs managed per 100 residents compared to an average of 13 per 100 across the 27 member states .
The regulation, which had been in place since January, had previously ignored whether a supplier was fulfilling its contract with the EU.
In an interview with the Financial Times, EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton rejected claims that the bloc was protecting him. “We feel that vaccine nationalism is really on the other side of the Channel,” he said. “We don’t see any vaccines in the UK arriving here.”
The EU has suffered a severe shortage of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine due to a production problem at a plant in Belgium and the company’s refusal to phase out UK-made doses.
The EU is threatening to ban exports to the UK of an unspecified number of doses produced at the AstraZeneca plant in the Netherlands.
UK officials have been in talks since Monday on the issue. In a joint statement on Wednesday night, the two sides said they were continuing to seek a “win-win” solution.
But UK health secretary Matt Hancock warned the EU that the UK had contract law on his side. “I believe that free trade countries are following contract law,” he told the Financial Times. “They have a ‘best efforts’ contract and we have a ban ban.”
27 EU heads of state and government are meeting from noon GMT. U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to attend the inaugural conference Thursday night to discuss future collaborations. The last U.S. president to attend a meeting of EU leaders was Barack Obama in 2009 when he attended a summit in Prague.