Ursula von der Leyen threatens to cut off Covid jab exports to Britain unless Europe gets more doses

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen today threatened to cut off exports of Covid-19 jabs to Britain and other vaccine-producing countries unless doses start flowing across to mainland Europe. In an extraordinary intervention, she said that the European Commission was prepared to use whatever “tool” necessary to ensure what it regards as fair access to supplies. With the EU under fire over its slow roll-out of vaccines, commission president Ms von der Leyen stressed 41 million doses had been exported in six weeks from the European bloc to 33 countries, which includes millions of Pfizer jabs from Belgium to the UK. She also told how the EU expects to get tens of millions of doses less of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab than she said it had ordered. She added: “Open roads run in both directions. “This is why we need to ensure that there is reciprocity and proportionality. “I want to be clear on reciprocity. If the situation does not change, we will have to reflect on how to make exports to vaccine-producing countries dependent on their level of openness. “So we are exporting a lot to countries that are themselves producing vaccines and we think this is an invitation to be open so that we also see exports from those countries coming back to the European Union. “The second point that is of importance for us - we will reflect on whether exports to countries who have higher vaccination rates than us are still proportionate. “In other words, we want reliable deliveries of vaccines, we want to increase in the contracts, we want to see reciprocity and proportionality in exports and we are ready to use whatever tool we need to deliver on that. “This is about making sure that Europe gets its fair share.” Evening Standard