Vaccine dispute: Brits say: “No, EU!” You will not receive our vaccine – policy abroad

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At the heart of the dispute with AstraZeneca on the open stage: EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides is under enormous pressure due to late and hesitant orders for vaccines.

“They are not around the corner from the butcher”

In the contract, which Brussels would now like to publish but is not authorized, four factories are listed for production, two of them in Great Britain. These would also have to be used for the EU order, ergo the vaccine should be from Great Britain to the continent, demands the Commissioner.

The fact that the EU concluded its treaty later does not matter either. “We reject the ‘first come, first served’ logic,” Kyriakides said. “That may apply to the butcher on the corner, but not to contracts.”

Even at an evening crisis meeting, Kyriakides insisted on deliveries from Britain, which in turn imported vaccines from the EU. However, the London government made it clear: the number of doses of vaccine destined for Great Britain should not change anything.

AstraZeneca recently promised EU 31 instead of 80 million cans, according to the EU Commission, mainly for February and March. After that, “darkness” prevails. For the initial phase, Brussels fears that it will only receive a quarter of the agreed delivery volume. This would collapse the strategy of using AstraZeneca’s drug as a mass vaccine.

AstraZeneca plans to reveal vaccine supply agreement

Now AstraZeneca wants to reveal the delivery contract itself. An EU representative from Reuters said Thursday night. However, the company insisted on blackening sensitive parts of the agreement.

Astra Zeneca boss Pascal Soriot had stated that his company had entered into a “best effort” agreement with the EU. That means it wanted to deliver the promised quantities, but was not contractually obligated to do so. The EU sees it differently.

The British have “more vaccines than necessary”

Notably: On the same day, The Times learned from “high-level industry sources” that the London government’s plans to donate vaccines to poorer countries were progressing. One is targeting Norway, which is pushing similar plans, because: The UK has a “more than necessary” vaccine.