On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen threatened to halt exports of EU-manufactured Covid-19 vaccines to the UK unless it reciprocates and starts shipping doses to the EU. The threat reportedly has the backing of Germany, France, Denmark and Italy.
The dispute has developed amid a major shortfall in the number of doses AstraZeneca was supposed to supply EU member states. The company said that instead of supplying 300 million doses in the first half of the year, it will only be able to supply 100 million due to production problems and export controls.
The EU now intends to send a formal letter to AstraZeneca in an attempt to resolve the dispute. According to an overview published by the Commission one week ago, the majority of the EU’s Covid-19 exports have gone to the UK, approximately 9.1 million doses. 3.9 million have also gone to Canada while a further 3.1 million have been purchased by Mexico.
This chart shows export requests for Covid-19 vaccine doses granted by the EU.
