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Vaccine export bans: Von der Leyens war announcement

2021-03-17T20:25:28.461Z


The EU Commission wants to fight the shortage of corona vaccines more aggressively - and openly threatens other countries with export bans. This primarily means Great Britain.


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EU Commission President von der Leyen: "Ready to use all necessary instruments"

Photo: POOL / REUTERS

A good balance sheet looks different.

The EU countries have received around 64 million doses of corona vaccines so far.

But since the end of January alone, at least 41.6 million cans have left the EU, exported to more than 33 countries.

In addition, there are not systematically recorded exports to the direct neighborhood of the EU, poorer countries or Israel.

In some weeks, according to the EU Commission, more cans were exported from the EU than delivered to its own members.

Ursula von der Leyen now wants to put an end to this - and is now openly threatening other countries to stop vaccines from the EU.

To this end, the control mechanism introduced at the end of January is to be tightened: There could be new requirements for countries that do not allow vaccines out of the country themselves or where a higher proportion of the population is vaccinated than in the EU.

"We export a lot to countries that produce vaccines themselves," said von der Leyen in Brussels on Wednesday.

The countries would then also have to supply the EU.

To this end, Brussels will "use all possible instruments," said von der Leyen.

Above all, she has her sights set on Great Britain.

The country is by far the largest recipient of vaccines from the EU.

Since the beginning of February alone, the British have received a good ten million cans from plants in the EU, said von der Leyen.

And those are just the numbers since the beginning of February.

Before that, the UK alone is said to have received roughly 20 million more cans from the EU, according to Brussels.

Far less went to other countries.

On an internal list of the commission, which is available to SPIEGEL, Canada, in second place, received 4.57 million cans, not even half as much as Great Britain.

Japan (4.03 million), Mexico (3.79 million), Saudi Arabia (1.54 million) and Turkey (1.41 million) followed suit.

First silence, now the offensive

So far, the Commission has kept these statistics under lock and key as far as possible.

The idea behind exporting vaccines is in itself a good idea in a pandemic.

At the same time, however, they feared the lack of understanding of the public.

Now von der Leyen is using the numbers for an offensive against Great Britain.

"We're still waiting for cans to come in from the UK," she said.

And that although there are two factories of the manufacturer AstraZeneca there, which are contractually obliged to deliver to the EU.

If nothing changes in this situation, "we will think about making exports to vaccine-producing countries dependent on the degree of their own openness," said the Commission chief.

"We will also think about whether exports to countries that have higher vaccination rates than we do are proportionate." To this end, the Commission is ready to "use all the necessary instruments."

A tightening of the control mechanism, which has hitherto been used extremely cautiously - only one of 322 export applications was rejected - would not be the only option.

According to von der Leyen, a paragraph from the EU treaties that was last used in the oil crisis of the 1970s is also an option.

Article 122 gives the EU the right to “take all necessary measures” to avert the undesirable consequences of a natural disaster, including a pandemic.

Vaccine could be confiscated or withdrawn from circulation at the border.

Compulsory licensing of vaccines or the prioritization of raw materials are also conceivable.

Threat should be enough

Von der Leyen does not want to let it get that far, she wants to threaten the atomic bomb, but not detonate it.

Instead, discussions with industrialized and partner countries should ensure that more of the tight doses come to Europe.

The EU must get its "fair share," she said on Wednesday.

Von der Leyen wants to present her can plan at the EU summit next week and get the approval of the member states - and they should be quite open to their suggestions.

The political pressure on governments is enormous given that countries like the UK, the US and Israel have left the EU far behind when it comes to vaccination.

There is less and less understanding among the population why the EU is still exporting vaccines in this situation, while both the USA and Great Britain are proceeding much more restrictively, say EU diplomats.

The EU will therefore probably follow suit at the summit, even if the details are still open.

Not everyone in Brussels is enthusiastic about this.

"An export ban doesn't help," says Bernd Lange, head of the powerful trade committee in the EU Parliament.

This could provoke backlash and might not be compatible with the rules of the World Trade Organization.

"And it doesn't invite companies to expand their production if they know that their export options are limited," warns Lange.

After all, the Europeans don't want to mess with the USA.

Its President Joe Biden did not touch the vaccine export ban imposed by his predecessor Donald Trump.

The US government is also said to have rejected a request from the EU to dispense ten million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine - although it is not yet allowed to be used in the US.

Nevertheless, there is no imbalance with the United States, said von der Leyen - because the EU simply does not export vaccines there.

At the same time, however, there is free trade in precursor products to vaccines, and the Commission does not seem to want to endanger it.

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Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-03-17

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