LONDON (CU)_British foreign secretary Dominic Raab has accused the European Commission of brinkmanship and called on the bloc to respect agreements formed between London and Brussels over the supply of COVID-19 vaccines.
Britain announced on Thursday (18 March) that with bumps in the global supply of vaccines, there will be a “significant” reduction in deliveries from the end of this month. This prompted the EU to threaten to ban exports of vaccines to Britain in order to safeguard scarce doses for the bloc’s own citizens, as Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen expressed her frustration over a lack of deliveries from AstraZeneca plants in UK.
However, Raab claims that these comments contradict assurances he had received from Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis and by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
“I think it takes some explaining because the world’s watching… It also cuts across the direct assurances that we had from the Commission,” he told Reuters. “We expect those assurances and legal, contracted supply to be respected.”
He added that London has been “reliably informed” that there were no plans to restrict lawfully contracted supply of vaccines to the United Kingdom.
Raab further noted that the Brussels had previously agreed with Britain that during a pandemic, it was “wrong to curtail or interfere with lawfully contracted supply”.
However, a Commission official has revealed that during a phone conversation with the British foreign secretary, Dombrovskis made clear that the bloc’s export authorisation system has been set up in such a manner that deliveries to EU countries will not be disproportionately affected by exports.
Although Britain has reported the fifth highest virus-induced deaths in the world, however, the country has launched one of the fastest vaccine rollouts, with over 25 million people being administered with a single dose to date. According to government figures, the country is on track to have given a first COVID-19 jab to half of the adult population within the next few days.
