Brussels sources said that the tough stance is “clear,” given that the European Union has exported 10 million vaccines to the United Kingdom in the past six weeks, but Britain has not exported anything at all.
The Commission moved to tighten the screws on the Netherlands ahead of the grinding EU summit on Thursday, as Mark Rutte, the prime minister, was expected to lead a group of member states calling for a more conciliatory approach, which would involve a compromise between the two countries. European Union, United Kingdom and AstraZeneca.
European Union diplomats said that under export rules introduced at the height of the dispute between Brussels and AstraZeneca over supply shortages in January, the commission must approve the export request.
This means that even if Roti did not want an export ban, he would be unable to stop it. The Dutch prime minister, who won last week’s election, spoke to Boris Johnson on Friday.
The prime minister also spoke to Alexander Decro, the Belgian prime minister, about the importance of vaccine supply chains. The Pfizer factory is located in the European Union in Belgium and supplies cakes to the United Kingdom.
On Wednesday, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, warned that all options are on the table, including: Activation of Article 122 of the Treaties of the European UnionThis allows confiscation of factories, assignment of patents, intellectual property rights and an export ban.
Britain demanded that AstraZeneca be exempt from its contractual obligations to fulfill UK orders prior to exporting from its British manufacturers.
She said that while the UK received 10 million strikes from the continent in the past six weeks, there were no exports to the European Union. It also said that AstraZeneca’s contract with Brussels considers the UK manufacturers to be part of the European Union.
Ms von der Leyen has intensified pressure on Britain ahead of the European Council on Thursday, a week after the third wave of the Coronavirus spread across most of Europe.
France, Germany, Italy and Denmark are also said to support the idea of a ban to impose “reciprocity” on Britain.
Understandably, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Sweden and Ireland are concerned that the move could harm European supply chains and companies if the vaccine trade war escalates.
If Britain retaliates by imposing a ban on the export of vaccine components, it could harm the continent’s production of Pfizer vaccines.