BRUSSELS: The European Union may get more restrictive in exporting Covid-19 vaccines to safeguard essential jabs for its own citizens facing a third wave of the pandemic, the head of the bloc’s executive said on Wednesday.
Ursula von der Leyen’s announcement risks escalating tensions with the United Kingdom and the United States over their restrictive approach to deliveries of vaccines to the 27-nation bloc.
She spoke as six EU countries complained to Brussels about reduced deliveries that are hampering the bloc’s already troubled inoculation campaign and could stall plans to restart travel this summer and support the battered tourism sector.
The EU faces an acute shortage of Covid-19 jabs due to reduced deliveries by AstraZeneca.
“We are in the crisis of the century,” von der Leyen said as Covid-related deaths in the EU top 550,000 and less than a tenth of the bloc’s population has been inoculated. “If this situation does not change, we will have to reflect on how to make exports to vaccine-producing countries dependent on their level of openness,” she said. — Reuters
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