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The EPP parliamentary group deputy Manfred Weber (CSU) at a speech at the Young Union's Germany Day
Photo: Harald Tittel / DPA
The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has been causing annoyance in the European Union for weeks.
From the point of view of the Commission and the member states, the British-Swedish company supplies the EU with far less vaccine than promised - but other countries such as Great Britain do not.
The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca admitted production problems in the EU, but defended itself against the accusation of deliberately supplying Great Britain and other non-EU countries with unreduced quantities.
Now the leader of the Christian Democrats in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber (CSU), fires the vaccine dispute between Brussels and London with a tweet.
"How many vaccinations have you sent to Europe?"
In it, Weber attacks the British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab.
Raab should stop teaching the European Union, wrote CSU Vice Weber on Twitter on Wednesday.
Instead, he should disclose how much vaccine Britain has exported to Europe and other regions.
In the past few months, eight million Biontech / Pfizer vaccinations went to Great Britain.
Then Weber asks provocatively: "How many vaccinations have you sent to Europe?"
Weber is reacting to the latest indignation from London.
The EU country Italy last week banned the export of 250,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia.
This is the first time an EU country has implemented the export control mechanism that the EU Commission only set up at the end of January.
Great Britain then criticized the EU for the delivery stop - even if it is not affected by delivery problems itself.
"All references are completely wrong"
In a further escalation of the vaccination dispute, Great Britain summoned the EU representative in London on Tuesday to protest statements by Council President Charles Michel.
The occasion was a newsletter from Michels, in which it said: "The United Kingdom and the United States have imposed a total ban on the export of vaccines or vaccine components that are manufactured on their territory."
In a letter to Michel, British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab reacted indignantly to the statements.
"The British government has not blocked the export of a single Covid-19 vaccine or vaccine components," the State Department quoted from Raab's letter.
"Any references to a UK export ban or any restrictions on vaccines are completely false."
Since these false accusations had been repeated at various levels of the EU, the matter had been "discussed further" with the appointed representative of Brussels, the Foreign Ministry announced in London.
Great Britain left the EU for good in January.
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mrc / dpa / AFP
