EU rebuffs UK calls to ship AstraZeneca COVID vaccines from Europe

[webfact]

FILE PHOTO: A health worker draws a dose of the AstraZeneca's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, at the vaccination centre in the Newcastle Eagles Community Arena, in Newcastle upon Tyne, Britain, January 30, 2021. REUTERS/Lee Smith/File Photo

 

By Francesco Guarascio

 

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is rebuffing British government calls to ship AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines produced in a factory in the Netherlands, an EU official said on Sunday.

 

Former EU member Britain has so far administered many more vaccines than EU countries in proportion to the population.

 

"The Brits are insisting that the Halix plant in the Netherlands must deliver the drug substance produced there to them. That doesn't work," the official told Reuters.

 

The Leiden-based plant which is run by sub-contractor Halix is listed as a supplier of vaccines in both the contracts that AstraZeneca has signed with Britain and with the European Union.

 

"What is produced in Halix has to go to the EU," the official added.

 

Britain has insisted that contracts must be respected.

 

"The European Commission will know that the rest of the world is looking at the Commission, about how it conducts itself on this, and if contracts get broken, and undertakings, that is a very damaging thing to happen for a trading bloc that prides itself on the rules of law," Defence Minister Ben Wallace said on Sky News earlier in answer to a question about Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen's threat to block exports to Britain.

 

The EU official said the EU was not breaking any contract.

 

The European Union threatened on Wednesday to block exports of COVID-19 vaccines to Britain to safeguard scarce doses for its own citizens, with Von der Leyen saying the epidemiological situation was worsening.

 

AstraZeneca has not yet sought approval in the EU for Halix, but the official and a second EU source said the request was on its way.

 

Without regulatory approval, vaccines produced at Halix cannot be used in the EU.

 

An internal AstraZeneca document seen by Reuters shows that the company expects EU approval on March 25.

 

AstraZeneca has declined to comment on the amount of vaccines that are currently stockpiled at Halix.

 

The EU official said the factory had already produced shots, but was not able to quantify the output. Under the EU contract with AstraZeneca, vaccines must be produced before approval and be delivered immediately afterwards.

 

Two factories in Britain run by Oxford Biomedica and Cobra Biologics are also listed as suppliers to the EU in the contract with AstraZeneca, but no vaccine has so far been shipped from Britain to the EU, despite Brussels' earlier requests.

 

Officials have said that Cobra is not fully operational. AstraZeneca told EU officials that the UK is using a clause in its supply contract that prevents export of its vaccines until the British market is fully served, EU officials said.

 

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio; Editing by Giles Elgood)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-03-22

 

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[RichardColeman]

Hopefully this will encourage more investment in the UK by companies moving there so that they are not hijacked by the EU officialdom overseers in the future.

[ukrules]

39 minutes ago, webfact said:

Officials have said that Cobra is not fully operational. AstraZeneca told EU officials that the UK is using a clause in its supply contract that prevents export of its vaccines until the British market is fully served, EU officials said.

Sounds like a broken contract by me, broken by the EU.

 

Is a contract null and void if they break it?

[Albert Zweistein]

57 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Hopefully this will encourage more investment in the UK by companies moving there so that they are not hijacked by the EU officialdom overseers in the future.

On the contrary, UK companies are moving to the continent to be able to serve their EU customers.

[RichardColeman]

3 minutes ago, Albert Zweistein said:

On the contrary, UK companies are moving to the continent to be able to serve their EU customers.

With a proviso that the EU can at anytime stop their worldwide exports should they feel it warranted ? Doesn't sound like a great place to have a business in the medical field

[candide]

So the same posters -who explained to us that the UK plants are intended to supply UK ("UK first") and that the EU should be supplied by EU plants (at a time they were unable to deliver)- are now going to explain us that EU plants should not supply the EU, but must supply UK instead!????

 

(One reason being that, due to a US first policy, India was forced to follow an India first policy and did not supply UK with the promised jabs.)

Edited March 21, 2021 by candide

[Hi from France]

1 hour ago, ukrules said:

Sounds like a broken contract by me, broken by the EU.

you really think the EU signed a contract with "UK first" all over it ? ????

 

 

We are implementing article 122, as it was done before with PPE

 

 

100% of the at-risk population of the UK is vaccinated now anyway, "Global Britain" should already be exporting its own production to countries that need it most by now. Europe has already been doing that, not just keeping it all...

 

 

This is the true face of "Global Britain" here ????

 

.

Edited March 21, 2021 by Hi from France

[vinny41]

16 hours ago, Victornoir said:

The UK has not honored any of its production and reciprocity commitments with EU, it receives the same in return.

 

Confidence is now broken between these 2 entities with serious consequences for future exchanges.

The UK doesn't have a contract with the EU to supply any vaccines

[candide]

58 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

With a proviso that the EU can at anytime stop their worldwide exports should they feel it warranted ? Doesn't sound like a great place to have a business in the medical field

UK also has a similar law.

[cocoonclub]

3 hours ago, ukrules said:

Sounds like a broken contract by me, broken by the EU.

How do you break a contract that you never signed? 

[Hi from France]

one more thing about the original article:  I wonder how Airfinity can claim that stopping sending additional vaccines to the UK can not bring positive results

Quote

The UK is waiting on around 30m more Pfizer doses and 30m from Johnson & Johnson – although only some of those had been expected to be delivered by the end of the summer.

just there, there are 60 millions doses to put to good use, and we are not talking about the AstraZeneca there but about the best ones and with 60 millions doses we have enough to protect 

 

 

let us calculate from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_European_Union (i'm taking the French wiki actually)

• EU total population 446 millions
• 65 year old  17%

so we have 75 millions 65 yo+, so 60 millions doses are going to be really useful

 

 

 

Quote

The UK government was until the last fortnight on course to beat its target of delivering a first vaccine dose to every adult in the UK by the end of July by over six weeks

nah you don't really urgently need to give the vaccine to "every adult in the UK" Boris, maybe you can set aside you short-sighted nationalism and put them to good use to save lives in the rest of the world like the EU already does...

Edited March 22, 2021 by Hi from France

[irishman25]

3 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Hopefully this will encourage more investment in the UK by companies moving there so that they are not hijacked by the EU officialdom overseers in the future.

The UK have the right to this vaccine it is already paid for with tax payers  money what a gang of thugs running EU. it only a matter of time your bank a/c will go

[Hi from France]

so about the other Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine problems 

source : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/21/brazil-saudi-and-morocco-told-of-delay-in-covid-jabs-from-india

 

we have "India first" and "fire in plant"

 

 

 

 

India used to do that

Quote

India’s programme of “vaccine maitri” (vaccine friendship), in which it has sold or given away more coronavirus vaccines than it has administered at home, has been locally praised as a diplomatic success.

 

Maybe "Global UK" can use some of its now production to help Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Morocco?

 

no?

[cocoonclub]

1 minute ago, irishman25 said:

The UK have the right to this vaccine it is already paid for with tax payers  money what a gang of thugs running EU.

You meant the EU has “the right to this vaccine it is already paid for with tax payers  money”, didn’t you? 

[Bkk Brian]

22 minutes ago, Hi from France said:

nah you don't really urgently need to give the vaccine to "every adult in the UK" Boris, maybe you can set aside you short-sighted nationalism and put them to good use to save lives in the rest of the world like the EU already does...

Like the EU already does?

 

The UK has donated $735 million to Covax to help the developing world have vaccines.

The EU has donated just $489 million

 

The UK is doing plenty to help the world.

 

In addition its surplus of vaccines that they do not need when they've finished the UK population will also be donated to the world.

[JBChiangRai]

Astra Zeneca’s first signed contract was with the UK.  The UK very cleverly wrote a clause in that contract to say its full order must be honored before any other deliveries to any other (as yet unsigned) customers.

 

The crux of the problem is that AZ will be in breach of contract and liable for damages if they ship any doses to any other country before honoring their contract with the UK.

 

To complicate matters further, some of the raw ingredients to make the AZ jab are only manufactured in the UK.  The UK may block exports of these raw ingredients to AZ in the EU if AZ is in breach of contract, then nobody will get their doses.

 

What the EU is doing is legally defined as “Tortious Inteference” and is illegal and will then render the EU liable for damages to both AZ and the UK government.

[Chomper Higgot]

6 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Hopefully this will encourage more investment in the UK by companies moving there so that they are not hijacked by the EU officialdom overseers in the future.

I doubt the companies care who they sell to.

 

 

[Chomper Higgot]

Governments wake up to the reality and that production capacity for vaccines is of strategic importance and act to ensure supplies for their own populations first.

 

Sign all the contracts you wish, but if the production plant is on somebody else’s turf that government has the sovereign right to act in the best interests of its own citizens. Your private contract becomes worthless.

[Chomper Higgot]

“The Leiden-based plant...”

 

So the Dutch have control over this vital strategic production facility - that’s a smart move.

 

And at Leiden too, one of the finest cities on the planet.

 

 

[robblok]

Well done EU, you paid for vaccines. They did not get delivered you take action. That the Brits have an agreement with Acezena is their problem. Every country has to do what it has to do. This is not between countries. But between the company and countries. 

 

 

[robblok]

9 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Governments wake up to the reality and that production capacity for vaccines is of strategic importance and act to ensure supplies for their own populations first.

 

Sign all the contracts you wish, but if the production plant is on somebody else’s turf that government has the sovereign right to act in the best interests of its own citizens. Your private contract becomes worthless.

Indeed, besides, the private company also promised the EU dosages they did not deliver. Seems only fair that what is produced in EU goes to EU and UK goes to Uk untill both UK and Eu have gotten what they paid for.

 

This is not between the UK and EU this is between the company and the respective countries.

 

Now the EU will make more plants, easier to finance as EU then as UK alone. So I think all countries are waking up that these kind of things need to be produced locally.

Edited March 22, 2021 by robblok

[ericdiam]

4 hours ago, Hi from France said:

you really think the EU signed a contract with "UK first" all over it ? ????

 

 

We are implementing article 122, as it was done before with PPE

 

 

100% of the at-risk population of the UK is vaccinated now anyway, "Global Britain" should already be exporting its own production to countries that need it most by now. Europe has already been doing that, not just keeping it all...

 

 

This is the true face of "Global Britain" here ????

 

.

EU might holding some vaccines in the Netherlands, but its UK who started all by keeping most in UK for themselves and shipping little amounts to Europe. Thats the main reason why EU is so angry and now acting in same way.

The prove is there 1000%. If Uk would have also exported what they had to they would never been so far already in vaccinating their population!!

Thats it.  Nothing else!!!

[nauseus]

16 hours ago, Victornoir said:

The UK has not honored any of its production and reciprocity commitments with EU, it receives the same in return.

 

Confidence is now broken between these 2 entities with serious consequences for future exchanges.

 

Need more on that claim.

[Surelynot]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

"The European Commission will know that the rest of the world is looking at the Commission, about how it conducts itself on this, and if contracts get broken, and undertakings, that is a very damaging thing to happen for a trading bloc that prides itself on the rules of law," Defence Minister Ben Wallace

You have got to give it to him........he said all this with one of his straight faces.

 

Why oh why would the interviewer not respond with questions about the NI protocol??????

[nauseus]

2 hours ago, cocoonclub said:

You meant the EU has “the right to this vaccine it is already paid for with tax payers  money”, didn’t you? 

Somehow I don't think so.

[Surelynot]

50 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

The UK very cleverly wrote a clause in that contract to say its full order must be honored before any other deliveries to any other (as yet unsigned) customers.

Which many on here have disputed and demand evidence for......I have seen it said on other forums, but the Brexiteers insist the UK would not do such a thing....it simply isn't cricket.

[2530Ubon]

8 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

You have got to give it to him........he said all this with one of his straight faces.

 

Why oh why would the interviewer not respond with questions about the NI protocol??????

Beat me to it... I was just going to say the same thing!

 

How many times has Boris tried to pull a fast one, breaking international law & signed contracts. The EU ambassador recieving full diplomatic immunity (DI) is another one that comes to mind. We signed the contract, but then told them no DI.

Edited March 22, 2021 by 2530Ubon

[robblok]

2 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

Which many on here have disputed and demand evidence for......I have seen it said on other forums, but the Brexiteers insist the UK would not do such a thing....it simply isn't cricket.

Again, if this is true its a problem between UK and the company. Just like this is a problem between the EU and the company. Its not as if this company is UK state owned. Its a public company they sold stuff they did not have. 

 

Now they want to give it to the UK first because of their contract. The EU does not agree an enacts a law they have every right too as they too have a contract. Besides it was produced in the EU and the EU also funded the research just as the UK. So I feel this a a fair solution. Keep what is in the UK in the UK and what was made in EU in Eu.

 

Just two sides both wanting what is best for them. I can't blame the UK or the EU.

[vinny41]

2 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

Which many on here have disputed and demand evidence for......I have seen it said on other forums, but the Brexiteers insist the UK would not do such a thing....it simply isn't cricket.

Last year when  the demand for PPE exceed supply, The UK found just placing an order wasn't sufficent as sometimes for supplier would sell their PPE stock to the highest bidder

[Surelynot]

Just imagine.......

 

All vaccine production is taking place in the UK and it is the UK that has funded, upfront, all research and production costs............but the EU has signed a commercial contract saying all vaccine production must be shipped out of the UK to the EU before any supplies got to the UK............mmmm........fine, no problem?