UK insists blockades not the answer in EU jab row

The United Kingdom would not respond to European Union moves to limit novel coronavirus vaccine exports by imposing blockades of its own, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told lawmakers.

"Blockades of either vaccines or of medicines, of ingredients for vaccines (are not) sensible," he said; noting companies looking to invest in nations will avoid those that introduce "arbitrary blockades".

He made the comments ahead of leaders from the EU's 27 member states meeting on Thursday evening to discuss ways to ensure the bloc gets more vaccine doses.

On Wednesday, the EU updated its export authorization mechanism to open the door to the blocking of exports to nations with good vaccination coverage, and those that restrict exports.

The EU has been attempting to increase its access to the vaccine after claiming the Cambridge-headquartered, Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca had failed to deliver the 120 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab it was expecting.

The company has blamed production problems but the EU has bristled at the fact that the UK seems to have received all of its expected doses.

With several production facilities in the EU making the vaccine for export, the bloc has mulled their effective blockade and the redirection of doses to the EU, which is in the grips of a third wave of infections and which has been much slower than the UK in administering injections.

Brussels claims more than 40 million doses of the vaccine have been exported from EU facilities during the past two months, of which 10 million went to the UK.

It says no doses have fl owed from the UK to the bloc.

But EU and UK leaders downplayed the dispute on Wednesday by issuing a joint statement that insists they want to "create a winwin situation and expand vaccine supply for all".

"We are all facing the same pandemic and the third wave makes cooperation between the EU and UK even more important," the statement said.

The BBC reported that potential restrictions on exports are largely symbolic and that the bloc hopes never to use them. The broadcaster said the bloc wants to use them to pressure companies to make more doses available for European nations.

The BBC quoted the EU's health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, as saying the bloc does not blame the UK for vaccine shortfalls.

"We're dealing with a pandemic and this is not seeking to punish any countries," Kyriakides said.

A UK government spokesperson added: "We are all fighting the same pandemic. Vaccines are an international operation; they are produced by collaboration by great scientists around the world. And we will continue to work with our European partners to deliver the vaccine rollout."

The Guardian newspaper said EU leaders are unlikely to take a hard line on vaccine exports.

That expectation followed Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, saying in the Bundestag that the bloc's priority should be on increasing production, not limiting exports.

"The problem at the moment with the vaccine supply isn't so much due to the question how much was ordered, but more about how much can be manufactured on European soil," she said.

Thierry Breton, the EU's internal market commissioner, said in an interview with the Financial Times that the bloc does not want to act in a protectionist manner.

"We have a feeling that the vaccine nationalism is really on the other side of the channel," he added.