“We have the opportunity to ban planned exports. This is the message for AstraZeneca: you first fulfill the agreement with Europe before you start deliveries to other countries,” Leiena told an interview with Funke Media.
As early as Wednesday, she threatened to take tougher steps to curb exports of Covid-19 vaccines.
She warned that the EU would assess whether “exports to countries with higher vaccination ratings than ours are still proportionate”.
In the six weeks since the EC introduced the vaccine export control mechanism on 30 January, pharmaceutical companies have delivered 9.1 million doses of vaccine from factories in the EU to Britain and shipped one million doses to the United States.
“There are all possibilities on the table,” Leiena said, adding that the situation with vaccines will be discussed in the talks of EU leaders next week.
